Asymmetric Environmental Governance in Azerbaijan - Oil Pollution and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

This book examines why authoritarian governments are willing to address environmental problems that have an international impact, such as CO2  emissions, but are reluctant to address problems that have only a domestic impact. In a case study of Azerbaijani oil politics, it demonstrates how  the incumbent Azerbaijani regime has taken important measures trying to  address CO2 emissions while ignoring the damage caused by oil pollution on  the Caspian coast. The book argues that resource-rich authoritarian governments are eager to join international environmental initiatives to improve their image, but they address domestic environmental issues mainly if they threaten their hold on power.


This book is an important contribution to scholarship on environmental governance in the post-Soviet space, an area that is poorly researched.  Therefore, it is a must-read for researchers and scholars interested in post-Soviet studies, as well as in the nexus between mineral-rich regions  and how social policy is created, e.g., environment, education, and  healthcare. In addition, this book will be of tremendous importance for policymakers and international organizations as it looks into the motivation of authoritarian states in the post-Soviet space for environmental measures.

 Agshin Umudov is associated with the Otto Suhr Institute of Political Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin (Germany). Earlier, he was employed as a research assistant at the Department of European Studies and

International Relations of the Qafqaz University in Baku (Azerbaijan). From 2012-2013, he worked as a project assistant at Renewables Academy (RENAC AG) in Berlin for the 'TrEff -Training in Energy Efficiency'
project, financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) to support energy efficiency initiatives in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine.