Greening the Gulf? Renewables, Fossil Capitalism, and the ‘East-East’ Axis of World Energy

Greening the Gulf? Renewables, Fossil Capitalism, and the ‘East-East’ Axis of World Energy  

Professor Adam Hanieh (University of Exeter) Chaired and co-organised by Dr Jamille Pinheiro Dias (ILCS/CLACS) and Dr Gianfranco Selgas (British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, UCL)  
Drawing upon his new book Crude Capitalism, Adam Hanieh explores the  growing role of the six Gulf Arab states (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman) in solar, wind, and other climate technologies that underpin dominant approaches to the 'Green Transition'. He situates this in the Gulf’s ongoing fossil fuel production, as well as the emergence of a new ‘East-East’ energy circuit that links the Middle East and China/East Asia, encompassing fossil fuels, petrochemicals, and renewables. This East-East energy axis is creating deepening interdependencies between capital accumulation in the Middle East and East Asia, and carries crucial implications for the possible future trajectories of the climate emergency.

Adam Hanieh is Professor of Political Economy and Global Development at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter (UK). He is also a Research Fellow at the Transnational Institute and sits on the Board of Directors of the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP). Hanieh is the author of four books, including Money, Markets, and Monarchies (Cambridge University Press, 2018), which won the 2019 British International Studies Association International Political Economy Group Book Prize. His most recent book Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market came out with Verso Books in 2024.

Part of the Critical Conversations in Environmental Humanities series from the Environmental Humanities Research Hub at The School of Advanced Study.

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