CHAPTER 11
Climate Change Policy in the Arab Region
Mari Luomi
Introduction: Comparing Arab
Countries’ Climate Policies
Will Arab countries always remain global laggards in domestic climate
policy? Do they still deserve the title of obstructionists in international
climate change negotiations? What differences are there in climate change
policy in the Arab region at different levels and in different structural
contexts?
While there is a nascent literature examining the climate change policies of individual Arab countries and their behaviour in international
climate change negotiations, there has so far not been a consistent effort
to examine these in a regional comparative setting, from a social science
perspective, which is what this chapter sets out to do.
This chapter focuses on three questions: first, why are recent years’
changes in domestic climate change policy in many Arab countries often
not reflected in policies at the international level? Second, are there
M. Luomi (B)
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
e-mail: mari.luomi@gmail.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_11
299
Climate Change Policy in the Arab Region
Mari Luomi
Introduction: Comparing Arab
Countries’ Climate Policies
Will Arab countries always remain global laggards in domestic climate
policy? Do they still deserve the title of obstructionists in international
climate change negotiations? What differences are there in climate change
policy in the Arab region at different levels and in different structural
contexts?
While there is a nascent literature examining the climate change policies of individual Arab countries and their behaviour in international
climate change negotiations, there has so far not been a consistent effort
to examine these in a regional comparative setting, from a social science
perspective, which is what this chapter sets out to do.
This chapter focuses on three questions: first, why are recent years’
changes in domestic climate change policy in many Arab countries often
not reflected in policies at the international level? Second, are there
M. Luomi (B)
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
e-mail: mari.luomi@gmail.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_11
299