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Climate Change and Economic Diversification in Saudi Arabia: Integrity, Challenges, and Opportunities

While Saudi Arabia’s long involvement in global climate change negotiations has attracted mounting attention, little is known about the kingdom’s climate change governance at the domestic level or its progress in terms of addressing climate change in line with economic diversification.

Aisha Al-Sarihi العربية switch to english
Climate Change and Economic Diversification in Saudi Arabia: Integrity, Challenges, and Opportunities
Vehicles are seen in a traffic jam, after a heavy rainstorm flooded roadways and streets, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Executive Summary

For decades, Saudi Arabia’s economy has been highly vulnerable to oil price shocks. Climate change presents an additional challenge to Saudi Arabia’s economy as it affects both the oil and non-oil economic sectors. Aware of the potential threats posed by climate change, Saudi Arabia has expressed its intention to engage in remedial action and planning in accordance with the kingdom’s efforts toward economic diversification.

While Saudi Arabia’s long involvement in global climate change negotiations has attracted mounting attention from analysts and researchers alike, little is known about the kingdom’s climate change governance at the domestic level or its progress in terms of addressing climate change in line with its economic diversification strategy. This paper sheds light on Saudi Arabia’s climate change governance at the national level. In particular, it examines the challenges and opportunities for aligning climate change policies with the kingdom’s economic diversification strategies.

Drawing from secondary literature and interviews with Saudi climate change experts, the paper reveals that effective governance of climate change in Saudi Arabia still faces fundamental challenges, among them, a lack of quantitative data, consistency, and certainty; absence of a climate action plan; heavy involvement of the Ministry of Energy, Industry, and Mineral Resources and the energy industry itself in addressing climate-related matters; and fragmentation of climate-related policies and efforts.

Recommendations

  • Develop a climate action plan that sets out targets, strategies, policies, and regulations and assigns clear duties and responsibilities to coordinate and advance climate action with respect to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as climate resilience.
  • Use existing arrangements and institutional architecture set for delivering economic diversification ambitions, but ensure to factor climate change into sectoral planning and development.
  • Ensure economy-wide implementation of climate action in order to achieve potential co-benefits from aligning climate policies with economic development.
  • Develop a strong, independent climate change committee to extend the influence now enjoyed by the Ministry of Energy, Industry, and Mineral Resources in addressing climate change to other ministries; ensure consistent policy delivery across ministries and sectors and eliminate policy fragmentation.
  • Support climate change research, and coordinate efforts of data collection, monitoring, and verification.
  • Facilitate information exchanges between climate experts and economic development policymakers.
  • Secure climate finance based on an economic assessment of climate impacts on different sectors.
  • Develop climate change capacity building programs targeting not only policymakers but also end users, such as utility companies, private investors, local municipalities, and civilians.
  • Integrate climate change topics into school and university curricula to raise awareness about climate change among Saudi youth.

Read full paper

Aisha Al-Sarihi

is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Her areas of research interest include political economy of environmental sustainability, energy policy, renewables, and climate policies, with a focus on the Arab region.

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