What Drives Climate Change Policy in Gulf Countries? A Comparative Case Study of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar

Abstract

Gulf countries, especially the producers of fossil fuels such as Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar have embraced radical climate change programs in an attempt to fight effects of climate change. Such initiatives include Saudi Green Initiative and the Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030; the UAE’s Net Zero 2050, Masdar City and Hydrogen Economy; and the Qatar’s National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP). However, it is unknown whether these actions mirror actual environmental reforms or the instrument of soft power strategies to strengthen international reputation and diversification of economy. The study therefore aims at establishing whether these climate policies are aligned to global climate goals, or they are aligned to economic and strategic priorities aimed achieving the nations’ long-term goals. The research involves both qualitative and quantitative data collected from secondary sources. The data were subjected to thematic coding analysis for qualitative analysis and exploratory analysis for the quantitative data. The findings show that even though Saudi Arabia’s, UAE’s, Qatar’s climate policies are real solutions to climate change, their introduction is usually not transparent and independent. The study also found that the polices in Saudi Arabia and Qatar are also more aligned to achieving the long-term goals of the country rather than meeting the global climate goals, which brings transparency issues. It only happened that the concern about climate change have come at a time when these countries were already implementing their strategies. For UAE, the study found that even though its policies are also aligned to their post oil economy strategies and real solutions to threats of environment, there is some medium transparency in relation to meeting global climate goals, though a lot is still hidden.