On 17 January 2022 the OSCE Academy in Bishkek in cooperation with the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), and the Europe-Central Asia Monitoring (EUCAM) hosted the Open Workshop on “Energy Transition and Central Asia” in a hybrid format, which participants had a chance to join in-person and online. The workshop was opened by Dr. Alexander Wolters, Director of the OSCE Academy. Dr. Wolters highlighted the impact of climate change and energy transition in the region and noted that the OSCE Academy and NUPI are publishing a volume covering these topics in 2022. The event was moderated by Dr. Roman Vakulchuk, Senior Researcher, NUPI.
Dr. Roman Vakulchuk briefly talked about the CADGAT project (Central Asia Data-Gathering and Analysis Team Research Project) and presented a new CADGAT report on “Energy Transition in Central Asia: Trends and Risks”. Dr. Vakulchuk provided an overview of fossil fuel trends in Central Asia from 2010 to 2020 and the role of external partners in the energy transition, as well as elaborated the production, consumption, import and export of coal, natural gas, and oil in Central Asia. Prof. Indra Overland, Research Professor, Head of Center for Energy Research, NUPI, discussed a paper on “Central Asia is a Missing Link in Analyses of Critical Materials for the Global Energy Transition.” He reviewed the mineral resource base of Central Asian countries and assessed current and potential contributions to the global supply chain. Prof. Overland highlighted that Central Asia is likely to become a new hotspot for mineral extraction and a major global supplier of selected critical materials for clean energy technologies. Dr. Rahat Sabyrbekov, Post-Doc Researcher, OSCE Academy, presented the article “Why Choose to Cycle in a Low-Income Country?”, where he indicated the main reasons for cycling to become an important policy goal in many countries and shared his findings on the opinion of the local community about cycling.
The workshop was followed by comments and discussion from Discussant Jos Boonstra, EUCAM Coordinator, Centre for European Security Studies (CESS), and the Q&A session.
The video recording of the workshop is available on our YouTube channel.