Environmental Impacts of the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Session Submission Type: Panel

Affiliate Organization: ASEEES Committee on Environmental Sustainability

Brief Description

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has not only had enormous humanitarian, political, and economic consequences, but it has also heightened environmental and climate risks to Ukraine, the region, and the world. The environmental impacts of the invasion are layered and multifaceted, and the thorough assessment of these impacts is still in its early stages. This panel aims to address and critically discuss some of the environmental impacts of the war, including concerns about nuclear power in Ukraine and Bulgaria, the environmental sustainability of Russian companies, and the consequences of the tightening regime in Russia and the context of the war in Ukraine for environmental groups and their international funders. The panel brings together scholars from different fields, institutions, and ranks to explore the diversity of environmental problems that have been caused -- or exacerbated -- by the war and to trace how they are being interpreted and navigated by different publics in different political systems, as well as by the international community.

Sub Unit

• Politics/Law

Chair

• Laura A. Henry, Bowdoin College

Papers

• All’s Fair in Nuclear Power and War?: Ecological Narratives in International Media Coverage of Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plants during the Russian War - Mika Perkiömäki, U of Helsinki (Finland)

• Greening the Grid in the Midst of War: Nuclear Development and Doubt in Bulgaria - Elana Resnick, UC Santa Barbara

• Re-Imagining the ESG Agenda in Russia after February 2022 - Olga Dovbysh, U of Helsinki (Finland)

• Transnational Environmental Activism and International Philanthropy after the War in Ukraine - Elizabeth N Plantan, Stetson U

Discussants

• Laura A. Henry, Bowdoin College

• Philipp Kohl, Ludwig-Maximilians-U Munich (Germany)