CHAPTER 1
Low Carbon Energy in the Middle East
and North Africa: Panacea or Placebo?
Li-Chen Sim and Robin Mills
Introduction
A seismic transformation of the global energy system is currently
underway. It involves a shift away from fossil fuels, which account for 85%
of our primary energy consumption, toward a low carbon energy system.
Not only is this process underway but it appears to have reached a ‘critical
inflection point’ 1 where the technical performance and market penetration of solar and wind, in particular, may be rendering the transition
almost irreversible. Two key trends are driving this transformation.
The first is the increasing use of low carbon sources of energy to
generate power. By the end of 2019, for instance, 172 countries or
L.-C. Sim (B)
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
e-mail: li-chen.sim@ku.ac.ae
R. Mills
Qamar Energy, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
e-mail: robin@qamarenergy.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
R. Mills and L.-C. Sim (eds.), Low Carbon Energy in the Middle East
and North Africa, International Political Economy Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59554-8_1
1
Low Carbon Energy in the Middle East
and North Africa: Panacea or Placebo?
Li-Chen Sim and Robin Mills
Introduction
A seismic transformation of the global energy system is currently
underway. It involves a shift away from fossil fuels, which account for 85%
of our primary energy consumption, toward a low carbon energy system.
Not only is this process underway but it appears to have reached a ‘critical
inflection point’ 1 where the technical performance and market penetration of solar and wind, in particular, may be rendering the transition
almost irreversible. Two key trends are driving this transformation.
The first is the increasing use of low carbon sources of energy to
generate power. By the end of 2019, for instance, 172 countries or
L.-C. Sim (B)
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
e-mail: li-chen.sim@ku.ac.ae
R. Mills
Qamar Energy, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
e-mail: robin@qamarenergy.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
R. Mills and L.-C. Sim (eds.), Low Carbon Energy in the Middle East
and North Africa, International Political Economy Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59554-8_1
1