China, India, and Russia account for over 40% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. China has become Russia’s primary strategic and economic partner, absorbing a large share of redirected fossil fuel exports. Likewise, India increased imports of Russian crude oil and oil products nineteen-fold between 2021 and 2023. At the same time, China, India, and Vietnam are pursuing their own energy transitions, from scaling up renewables to boosting energy independence.

Economic and political priorities in these countries are shaping regional energy diplomacy and influencing global decarbonisation. Yet there are gaps in our current understanding of the complex interactions between geopolitics, energy dependencies, and energy transitions across Russia and Asia.

The project’s in-person convening in Bangkok provided a platform to explore the implications of changing energy trade between Russia, China, India, and Vietnam. The sessions brought together leading researchers, policy experts, finance and civil society representatives for two days of evidence-based discussions aimed at anticipating risks and underscoring the co-benefits of energy transitions and low-carbon development.  

Read the project publications:

Russia’s Fossil Fuel Pivot and the Asian Energy Transition: Shifting Energy Flows in a Changing Geopolitical Landscape

Accelerating Asia’s Clean Energy Transition: Leveraging Co‑Innovation and South‑South Collaboration 

Dr. Tatiana Lanshina, Independent Energy Expert

Dr Liu Xu, Deputy Director, Institute for Russian, East European and Central Asia Studies, Renmin University of China

Prof. Gulshan Sachdeva, Professor, Centre for European Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Dr Hung N. Nguyen, Acting Director, Department of Energy Economics, Institute of Energy

Dr. Anna Korppoo, Fridtjof Nansen Institute