The Eurasian Climate Brief

The Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek ranks among the largest cities in all of Central Asia. Located close to the country's border with Kazakhstan, it lies just off the northern fringe of the Kyrgyz Ala-Too Range. While contributing to a scenic panorama, these geographic factors also challenge the city's urbanistic ambitions. A largely fossil-based energy generation, a seemingly opaque urban sprawl and the challenges of a changing climate are thoroughly testing the city's limits. How does the challen...

Central Asia is among the world's most vulnerable regions to climate change. Already today, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are facing various climate consequences: from droughts to landslides, from glacier melts to flash floods. At the same time, this region's energy landscape contains almost all energy sources from fossil to renewables; to a varying degree, the energy transition is underway, even if not at the desired pace. What are the five Central Asian del...

Today, we are introducing you to two people at the forefront of activism and resistance to very concrete environmental issues in their home countries, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Boris talks to Bermet Borubaeva, urban environment analyst, artist and founder of the initiative #BishkekSmog, on her struggle for clean air in the Kyrgyz capital, the preservation of public transport infrastructure and educating the public on waste. Angelina speaks to Anisa Abibulloeva, project coordinator of the pub...

The 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) ended in late November in Baku. Two weeks of intense climate negotiations unveiled deep divides—particularly between the Global North and South over climate finance and contentious debates on the right wording of transitioning away from fossil fuels. In this episode Angelina Davydova and Boris Schneider dissect the outcomes of the conference, offering insights into the broader implications for climate action, both globally and in Central Asia. Joi...

This week, the Eurasian Climate Brief team heads to the Balkans, Bulgaria, to look into the cracks of the European Union's carbon market (a.k.a., EU ETS). In July 2021, an investigation by Eleonora Vio and Daniela Sala for the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) found that two Bulgarian power plants appeared to have under-declared their carbon emissions. If true, this would mean the EU ETS would have lost around 30 million euros in emissions tax. Months later in Februar...

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian civil society has faced increasing repression at home. The environmental movement is no exception. While they kept communication channels open before the war, feeding the outside world precious data on the state of Russia's forests, permafrost and Arctic, large mainstream NGOs such as WWF, Greenpeace and Bellona have all been declared undesirable organisations in recent months. This makes their nation-level work near to impossible. Angelina Da...

It’s been a year since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The war has killed hundreds of thousands both sides included and displaced millions of Ukrainians, while plunging the rest of Europe into an energy crisis. Its environmental impacts have also been devastating, ranging from military chemical contamination and emissions to nuclear threats. In Russia, the government's swing towards totalitarianism has taken a severe toll on the climate and environmental movements. One...

A little more than two weeks after the end of COP27, the Eurasian Climate Brief team takes stock on what the summit in Sharm El-Cheikh has achieved, and where it fell short: How significant is the deal on the ‘loss and damage’ fund, aimed at compensating developing countries for irreversible climate impacts? And what progress has made, if any, in the fight to phase out fossil fuels? Needless to say that all of this is to be read against the background of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the ter...

Just a year ago, in the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow, we published the first Eurasian Climate Brief episode. With this year's COP on the doorstep - this time in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt - we are now bringing you the first installment in our special COP27 series. Angelina and Boris speak to Baktygul Chynybaeva, a journalist and communicator with CAN EECCA, the Climate Action Network in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. What are the delegations coming...

In late September, four leaks were detected in the gas pipelines linking Russia to Europe, Nord Stream 2 and Nord Stream 1. The incidents, were, in all likelihood, an act of sabotage. In a joint letter to the UN Security Council, Denmark and Sweden declared that they were caused by "at least two detonations" with "several hundred kilos" of explosives, causing major leaks of natural gas into the Baltic Sea. In this episode, we discuss the leaks’ environmental and geopolitical impa...

In September 2019, Russia formally joined the Paris Agreement, raising hopes the world's fourth emitter would finally throw its weight behind global decarbonisation efforts. The move followed years of lobbying from European governments, including Germany, France and Scandinavian countries. Nearly 3 years later, the Kremlin's war on Ukraine appears to have severely undermined climate action and international collaboration over climate science. In an interview with Boris Schneider...

The Eurasian Climate Brief is a podcast dedicated to climate issues in the region stretching from Eastern Europe to Russia down to the Caucasus and Central Asia. In this episode, we're speaking with one of the world’s top Russian energy experts, Thane Gustafson. How has the war in Ukraine has reshaped the global energy trade? And, could it help accelerate the energy transition? Thane is a professor in Russian politics and the politics of Government in the Soviet Union at Georgetown University...

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has changed everything. At the time of writing, there have been more than 900 Ukrainian civilians and 1300 soldiers killed since the start of the invasion on 24 February. At least 7,000 Russian have died - a greater death toll than that of American troops over 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. The conflict carries risks for the environment, too. On 4 March, Europe held its breath after Russian forces shelled the continent’s largest nuclear po...