From Deserts to Diversification: Climate Resilient Strategy of the Gulf

Abstract

The Gulf countries have long been recognised around the world as the ‘oil powerhouses’. But now they are beginning to take centre stage on the international climate change agenda with projects like the UAE's Al Maktoum Solar Park, BeSolar in Qatar and many more. Internationally, Gulf participation in the ISO-GHG Protocol collaboration and the Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity (VCMI) initiative indicates an increasing interest from the region in global carbon governance. It looks like serious attempts at mitigating the hold of an oil-past.

This research article presents a comparative analysis of the Gulf countries' position in climate governance. It is framed using the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approach. It examines the tendencies in climate policies from the year 2000 to the present. It uses the Sustainability Index dataset from 2019 to 2022. The main methodical instrument used is the normalised TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution). The statistical results hint that climate resilience is a factor of not just expenses made but of the overall ratio between different contributing factors. This explains why Bahrain and Oman are placed above Qatar. 

In an effort to provide a complete picture, analysis combines a quantitative scoring of results with a qualitative interpretation of policy based on ecological modernisation theory and post-rentier approaches.