Oil, decolonization, and the future of the climate emergency

Oil was and still is a good thing of human species because it helped and still helping the human development and our movements on long distances, but its usage has some bad side effects like polluttion and climate change because of gas it produces help heating the stmosphere. Decolonization movements sought to win sovereignty and control over national resources, especially oil.

This lecture was done yesterday, 15th of May 2025, by Professor Adam Hanieh who is Professor of Political Economy and Global Development at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter (UK). explores oil’s influence on national independence struggles, from the 1955 Bandung Conference to the rise of OPEC and the nationalisation of crude reserves. It examines how these shifts reshaped global power, exposing both the successes and limits of decolonisation, and their contemporary relevance in understanding the roots of today’s climate crisis.

Professor Adam Hanieh is also a Research Fellow at the Transnational Institute and held a Political Economy Fellowship from the Independent Social Research Foundation in 2023, which traced the new geographical linkages between the oil-producing states of the Middle East and China/East Asia.