This article assesses the extent to which the academic community engaged with climate change in Central Asia between 1991 and 2021. The article finds that climate change has been neglected in the field of Central Asia area studies. Out of a total 13,488 journal articles in eight key journals for Central Asia research, only 33 articles (0.24%) were on climate change or a related topic. Climate change has been similarly neglected at the events of 17 Central Asia area studies associations. Out of 1305 conference panels, none was focused on climate change. Out of 10,249 individual presentations, only two (0.02%) were focused on climate change. The very same scholars who have been most active in the securitization of Central Asia have ignored the severe security threats that climate change poses to the region. The article contributes to the field of Central Asian studies by drawing attention to severe knowledge gaps that hinder the Central Asian countries from adapting to climate change. It concludes with six recommendations.

With the Clean Energy for all Europeans legislative package, the European Union (EU) aimed to put consumers “at the heart” of EU energy policy. The recast of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) acknowledged the importance of energy communities for the energy transition and introduced new provisions for renewable energy communities (RECs), empowering them to participate in the energy market. This article analyses the progress of transposing and implementing key provisions of the RED II that apply to RECs in nine European countries and focuses on timeliness and completeness of transposition. It comprises both a qualitative and quantitative assessment covering (1) the definition, rights, and market activities of RECs; (2) key elements of enabling frameworks; and (3) consideration of REC specificities in support schemes for renewable energy. The analysis shows considerable variation in transposition performance between the analysed countries. The authors investigate the reasons for this variation and relate them to findings of European implementation and compliance research. Key factors identified include actor-related and capacity-related factors, institutional fit, and characteristics of the RED II itself. Future research in this field needs multi-faceted avenues and should pay particular attention to the influence of national governments and incumbents, not only in the transposition process, but already in upstream policy formulation at the European level.

This article examines if and how access to electricity has contributed to women’s empowerment in the broader context of the political economy of gender and energy in rural Naryn, Kyrgyzstan. Earlier literature has pointed to how electricity provided through development interventions has facilitated a range of desirable services, conditional for children’s education, communication technologies and economic growth. Access to electricity has been linked to gender equality and women’s empowerment via providing women new opportunities for agency and income. The context of this article is rural Kyrgyzstan where electricity has been available since the 1970s as a service delivered by the centralized Soviet state. This study provides important insights into how this has affected local development and gender relations in a post-socialist country. It reveals the complexity of energy access and challenges the assumptions that access to modern energy such as electricity will lead to fulfillment of SDG#7 on affordable and clean energy, or increased economic activity and abandonment of traditional energy use. The findings demonstrate that electricity provides an important resource for communication, income generation and household chores. However, the lack of reliability and affordability of electricity in rural areas in the larger context of post-Soviet transitional challenges and changing gender norms, has undermined women’s potential empowerment and has worked to maintain gender inequalities.

This chapter explores climate change impacts and the related experiences and realities of local women in rural Kyrgyzstan by combining research on the physical impacts of climate change in the Central Asian region with an analysis of ethnographic accounts of local people’s farming and energy-use practices. Our analysis reveals how interlinked material, social and cultural realities of local communities manifest in social differentiation that enables or limits women’s capacities to cope with climate change and engage in adaptation practices. The post-Soviet period has diminished rural women’s access to social protection and economic opportunities while reinforcing patriarchal gender norms, depriving women of land ownership rights and decision-making power over strategic life decisions.

The transition to clean energy is not inherently positive or negative, and its impacts depend on the social context, power relations, and mechanisms to include marginalized voices. India, with its ambitious climate targets and commitment to the UN SDG Agenda, is a key country for ensuring an inclusive and sustainable transition. This paper aims to understand whether India’s commitment to the SDG Agenda’s overarching principle of ‘leaving no one behind’ is reflected in the design of its domestic solar policies. It analyzes how energy justice concerns are addressed in state-level solar policies. To that end, a pragmatic framework was developed to identify key justice dimensions and indicators, linked to the SDG targets, that are essential for an inclusive transition. This research conducted a qualitative interpretive content analysis of 29 solar energy policies, using the three identified framework dimensions—income growth, enhancing inclusion, and equal opportunities. We found that the themes around energy access, employment, and skill development are reflected in policies, while those around the inclusion of the poor, women, and community remain limited. The findings indicate that the policies have focused on low-impact justice concerns, lacking structural transformation. To address these gaps, the study proposes targeted subsidies, community ownership, and gender-inclusive mechanisms. The framework offers a pragmatic tool for the evaluation of clean energy policies in the Global South, and the empirical results provide insights for the synergistic implementation of the climate and sustainable development agenda.