1st Edition
Strategies and Challenges of Sustainable Development in Eurasia
This book examines the main environmental challenges and their management in post-Soviet Eurasia and China. It uncovers international, national, and subnational dimensions in sustainable development and aims to facilitate understanding of pressing environmental problems in the region.
While supporting the values and goals of sustainable development at the international level, states might employ very different strategies at the national, regional and local levels. The goal of this edited book is twofold. First, it aims to advance our understanding of different strategies, paying special attention to China and Russia at global, national, and sub-national levels. Thus, analysis of their strategies across different levels presents a more rounded picture. The second goal is to identify at least a few of the most pressing challenges of sustainable development across post-Soviet Eurasia and China (e.g. nuclear supply chain, emissions, environmental conflict management) and to attempt to understand their triggers, outcomes, and potential solutions. This book reflects the state-of-the-art before the invasion in Ukraine took place. It aspires to develop a better dialogue across different sets of literature in area studies, environmental politics, and international relations to improve our understanding of obstacles to sustainable development in Eurasia.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Post-Communist Economies.
Citation Information
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Strategies and challenges of sustainable development in Eurasia
Anastassia Obydenkova
1. Leadership in high-level forums on energy governance: China and Russia compared
Jale Tosun and Karina Shyrokykh
2. Environmental conflict management: a comparative cross-cultural perspective of China and Russia
Arthur L. Demchuk, Mile Mišić, Anastassia Obydenkova and Jale Tosun
3. Kazakhstan’s climate change policy: reflecting national strength, green economy aspirations and international agenda
Marianna Poberezhskaya and Alina Bychkova
4. Greenhouse gas emissions regulation in fossil fuels exporting countries: opportunities and challenges for Russia
Ilya A. Stepanov and Igor A. Makarov
5. Post-Soviet states and CO2 emissions: the role of foreign direct investment
Raufhon Salahodjaev and Arletta Isaeva
6. Nuclear supply chain and environmental justice struggles in Soviet and Post-Soviet countries
Ksenija Hanaček and Joan Martinez-Alier
Index
Biography
Anastassia Obydenkova is a Research Scientist at The Institute for Economic Analysis of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (IAE-CSIC) and Affiliated Professor at Barcelona School of Economics (BSE), Spain. Her main areas of expertise are sustainable development, socio-economic and geopolitical transformations, global environmental politics, and area-focus on Eurasia and China. She is the author and editor of multiple books and articles on these topics. She was awarded research fellowships at Yale, Princeton, and Harvard Universities.
What happens in Eurasia will have enormous implications for the global fight to mitigate climate change. This set of essays does a great job helping us understand the evolution of events in these countries and how they are likely to respond to the need to make a green transition. The analysis makes a large contribution by combining a clear-eyed understanding of the political processes with a focus on important environmental drivers such as the nature of the energy systems in Russia and China.
Robert Orttung, Research Professor of International Affairs, George Washington University (USA)
“The issue of environmental governance in Eurasia is an area that has for too long been neglected by policymakers and even overlooked by scholars of the region, lost under the more pressing issues of authoritarian leadership and economic transition. This volume rectifies this neglect with a fascinating series of chapters addressing the environmental challenges that the region faces – and, critically, how the governance aspect of environmental management is being addressed. Covering China, Russia, and the states of Central Asia, this book should be required reading for understanding approaches to sustainability in the Eurasian landmass.”
Christopher A. Hartwell. Professor of International Business Policy, ZHAW School of Management and Law (Switzerland)
Environmental depredation was one of the many scarring legacies of Communist rule in the former Soviet Union. From a variety of perspectives, the authors examine how Russia and other former Soviet republics have sought to reduce hydrocarbon emissions but have made only faltering progress at best. The book covers Central Asia and Russia in particular depth and also features valuable coverage of protest movements against environmental waste around nuclear sites --- movements that began to arise during the late Soviet era and that have continued to functino since 1991, albeit with mixed results. The book also does an admirable job of comparing Russia, by far the largest Soviet successor state, with China, a country that is still a Communist autocracy. The similarities and contrasts between these two cases are fascinating.
Mark Kramer, Director of Cold War Studies, Harvard University (USA)
