Key Issues for Long-Term Climate Policy Design in GCC Countries with a Focus on Qatar

This chapter explores the challenges and options of designing an efficient long-term global climate policy for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The authors start by reviewing the exposure of GCC countries to climate risks and the mitigation and adaptation options at their disposal. It then explores the macroeconomic cost of realising the emissions abatement implied by the Paris Agreement and evaluates the possibility of balancing the burden through an allocation of emissions permits in an international emissions trading system. Focusing on Qatar, the authors then conduct a bottom-up analysis to see how this country could drastically reduce its greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. The authors show how GCC energy policies must be modified to support a global transition towards net zero emissions. In this context, the chapter assesses the comparative advantage of GCC countries in harnessing negative emissions technologies that are necessary to reach the Paris Agreement target.