Book "Climate Change in Central Asia – Decarbonization, Energy Transition and Climate Policy" launched at the OSCE Academy

On 24 April 2023, the book "Climate Change in Central Asia – Decarbonization, Energy Transition and Climate Policy," published as part of SpringerBriefs in Political Science book series (BRIEFSPOLITICAL), had its open-access launch event at the OSCE Academy. The book features 12 chapters authored by a range of experts who delve into the impacts, adaptation, and mitigation of climate change in the Central Asian region. Each chapter makes a significant contribution to the field of social science scholarship on climate change and decarbonization in Central Asia, covering topics that have received little or no attention in existing literature. While some chapters focus on specific countries, many offer a comprehensive overview of the entire Central Asian region.

Dr. Indira Satarkulova, Acting Director of the OSCE Academy, opened the event, highlighting the importance of the book in the Central Asian region. “This book represents another crucial step in capturing a broad in the societal relations of climate-related issues,” she said. Dr. Rahat Sabyrbekov, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the OSCE Academy and co-editor and co-author of the book, noted that “this book is a significant contribution to academia because it fills a gap in the existing literature and addresses an area that has been overlooked.”

Following the introduction, the book's editors - Dr. Rahat Sabyrbekov, Dr. Indra Overland, Research Professor and Head of the Research Group on Climate and Energy at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), and Dr. Roman Vakulchuk, Senior Researcher at NUPI, as well as the co-authors, presented the book. The event was divided into three panels and each of them was followed by a Q&A session in which speakers and participants, including practitioners, researchers, experts, and students, discussed the presented topics.

In the first session, moderated by Dr. Rahat Sabyrbekov, Dr. Alisher Mirzabaev, Interim Chair of the Production Economics Group, Institute of Food and Resource Economics (ILR) at the University of Bonn; Dr. Burulcha Sulaimanova, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the OSCE Academy; and Dr. Anne Sophie Daloz, Climate Researcher at CICERO, talked about their research in Climate Change in Central Asia. The second session was devoted to the topic of Central Asian Decarbonization Pathways and was moderated by Dr. Indra Overland, where Dr. Rahat Sabyrbekov, Dr. Nurkhat Zhakiyev, Senior Researcher, Power System Modeler, Head of the Department of Science and Innovation – Astana IT University; and Dr. Morena Skalamera, Assistant Professor at Leiden University and an Associate at the Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School, provided their inputs. In the third session, moderated by Dr. Roman Vakulchuk, Prof. Dr. Fabienne Bossuyt, Associate Professor and coordinator of the Ghent Institute for International and European Studies at the Department of Political Science at Ghent University; Yana Zabanova, Research Associate at the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) in Potsdam, and Dr. Suzy Blondin Teaching Assistant at the Institute of Geography of the University of Neuchâtel, discussed their chapters on Climate Change in Central Asia and Wider Implications.

The book is open access and can be downloaded here.

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