Coloniality within the EU-Morocco ‘Green Partnership’: Discursive (Re)production of Neocolonial Power

Sammanfattning

On the EU’s path towards climate neutrality in 2050, green hydrogen has emerged as a crucial energy carrier to support decarbonization. Despite growing academic attention, there is a lack of literature critically engaging with green hydrogen projects from a postcolonial perspective. Focusing on renewable energy as an external dimension of the Green Deal, this thesis asks: How does the EU-Morocco ‘Green Partnership’ in the green hydrogen sector reflect the dynamics of Energy Colonialism? Employing the analytical framework of Energy Colonialism, the thesis adopts a single case study approach to conduct a critical discourse analysis of the ‘Green Partnership’ between the EU and Morocco in the green hydrogen sector. Guided by theories of Postcolonialism (Said), Critical Political Economy (Wallerstein), and Post-structuralism (Foucault), the thesis finds that the ‘Green Partnership’ discursively (re)produces neocolonial power structures. This is substantiated by identifying coloniality operating across all analytical levels of the ‘Green Partnership’, enabling and legitimizing resource extraction and territorial claims in Western Sahara, which have been ruled illegal by the ICJ in 1975. These findings reveal a juxtaposition between the EU’s proclaimed respect for the independent status of Western Sahara and its discursive enabling of green hydrogen development in illegally occupied territory.