GCSJ seminar series: Greening the Gulf? renewables, fossil capitalism, and the ‘East-East’ axis of world energy

Speaker: Professor Adam Hanieh (Exeter University)

Chair: Emilie Rutledge 

Drawing upon his recent book Crude Capitalism (Verso 2024), 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, most recently Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market (Verso 2024).

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