In this special New Year episode, we take you behind the scenes of the production of the Eurasian Climate Brief and brief you on the biggest climate stories of the year for our region. Natalie Sauer unpacks Eastern European climate politics, discussing how Poland and other Visegrad countries have locked horns with the EU over climate legislation and forest conservation measures. The spat between the Czech Republic and Poland over an open-pit lignite mine on the border also gets a mention.

On Central Asia, Boris Schneider discusses the impact of energy-hungry cryptomining in Kazakhstan as well as the water disputes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Commenting from her kitchen in St-Petersburg, Angelina Davydova closes in on Russia’s climate 2060 net-zero climate target, the country’s mounting environmental protests, and the recent coal mine explosion in Keremovo, Siberia, which left 51 dead.

The Eurasian Climate Brief is a new podcast dedicated to climate news in the region stretching from Eastern Europe and Russia down to Caucasia and Central Asia. 

This episode is hosted by:

• Natalie Sauer is a French British environmental journalist and MA student in Russian and Post-Soviet Politics at the School of Eastern European and Slavonic Studies, University College London. A former reporter for Climate Home News, her words have also appeared in international media such as Le Monde Diplomatique, Politico Europe, Open Democracy, Euractiv and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
• Boris Schneider is the climate and environment lead at n-ost, a Berlin-based network for cross-border reporting. Boris heads initiatives to boost climate journalism in Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe. 
• Angelina Davydova is an environmental journalist from Russia. Angelina has been writing about climate change in the region for Russian and international media and attending UN climate summits since 2008. She also teaches environmental journalism and environmental and climate policy and communication in a number of universities and regularly organises training for journalists from Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Caucasus on environmental and climate reporting.

Join us for a regional perspective on this historic climate summit. Follow the Eurasian Climate Brief now in your favourite podcast app.

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