Beyond ownership structures: Oil company climate discourses in authoritarian Russia and Kazakhstan

Oil companies play a central role in global climate politics, yet existing research provides a limited understanding of how corporate climate strategies vary across ownership structures and political systems. This article addresses this gap though a comparative study of private and state-owned oil companies in Russia and Kazakhstan. Both are authoritarian states, major global oil producers, significant greenhouse gas emitters, and are highly dependent on fossil fuel exports. Using a most-similar system design, the analysis draws on an extensive range of publicly available corporate documents in English, Russian and Kazakh, to examine how oil companies (private and state-owned) have responded to climate change, and how these discourses interact with national climate agendas. Comparing discursive framings on climate change across countries and ownership types, the findings show that authoritarian state priorities strongly shape climate discourses, overshadowing differences generated by both private and state-owned companies. Unlike their Western counterparts that are driven primarily by financial and reputational interests, in Russia and Kazakhstan, both private and state-owned companies largely align their climate narratives with national political goals, limiting the scope for independent or market-driven climate positioning. Broadly, this article advances understanding of how political context shapes corporate climate behaviour. It demonstrates that in authoritarian fossil fuel states, national politics takes centre stage in structuring corporate engagement with climate change, with important implications for global climate governance.