Geographies of Decarbonization

This chapter examines the socio-spatial dimensions of Argentina’s role in the global energy transition, focusing on lithium mining in Jujuy and green hydrogen production in Río Negro. It situates these activities within the geopolitics of decarbonization, highlighting how the rising demand for critical raw materials and clean energy carriers reproduces asymmetries in North–South relations while simultaneously generating new institutional reforms, conflicts, and imaginaries. Drawing on comparative political economy and fieldwork-based case studies, the analysis explores actor constellations, governance frameworks, and discursive strategies that shape the emerging geographies of decarbonization. This chapter shows how lithium and hydrogen projects are embedded in provincial strategies of green developmentalism that promise industrial upgrading, technological transfer, and climate protection, yet also spark resistance from indigenous communities, environmentalists, and civil society actors. By linking local struggles to global supply chains and policy frameworks, the chapter conceptualizes “green frontiers” as contested socio-ecological spaces where visions of climate mitigation and economic modernization intersect with territorial reconfigurations, power asymmetries, and competing sociotechnical imaginaries.