Overview

At the heart of Mari Luomi's salutary book is whether oil- and gas-dependent authoritarian monarchies can keep their natural resource use and the environment in balance. She argues that the Gulf monarchies have already reached their limits of 'natural sustainability', given that several of them are dependent on natural gas imports. Water resources are dwindling, and food import dependence is high and rising. Qatar's per capita emission of CO2 is ten times the global average. As a result of their booming economies, the Gulf monarchies' surging electricity and water demand have exerted unexpected pressures on domestic energy supply. Simultaneously, the consolidation of climate change on the international agenda has created a new uncertainty for local rulers whose survival depends on sales of oil and gas. Meanwhile domestic resource consumption, together with climate change, are putting unprecedented stress on the region's fragile desert environment. The Gulf is under stress, but so too are its states' power, wealth and ecosystems. Luomi reveals how Abu Dhabi and Qatar have responded to these new natural re- source-related pressures, particularly climate change, and how their responses are inextricably linked with elite legitimacy strategies and the 'natural unsustainability' of their political economies.

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9780199387526

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The Gulf Monarchies are making progress in the challenge to transform their economies and achieve economic sustainability, but only recently has awareness of the ecological challenge linked to the harsh climate of the region begun to be recognised. Mari Luomi's book details the early steps that have been taken to tackle this further challenge, focusing in particular on Abu Dhabi and Qatar, and the many difficult decisions that lie ahead. Can environmental sustainability be reached? At what cost? -- Giacomo Luciani, Adjunct Professor of International Affairs, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva Dr Luomi does an exemplary job of teasing out the lineage of different policies amid the complex, overlapping, and opaque world of Gulf Ministries, national energy companies, associated institutions, consultancies, and advisors. -- Global Policy

The Gulf Monarchies are making progress in the challenge to transform their economies and achieve economic sustainability, but only recently has awareness of the ecological challenge linked to the harsh climate of the region begun to be recognised. Mari Luomi's book details the early steps that have been taken to tackle this further challenge, focusing in particular on Abu Dhabi and Qatar, and the many difficult decisions that lie ahead. Can environmental sustainability be reached? At what cost? -- Giacomo Luciani, Adjunct Professor of International Affairs, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva Dr Luomi does an exemplary job of teasing out the lineage of different policies amid the complex, overlapping, and opaque world of Gulf Ministries, national energy companies, associated institutions, consultancies, and advisors. -- Global Policy Dr. Mari Luomi has accumulated a vast amount of material gleaned from the Gulf states' official publications ... her narrative is supported by a truly impressive array of statistics' David Heard, Asian Affairs

Author Information

MARI LUOMI is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Regional and International Studies at Georgetown University in Qatar. She has previously worked in various positions for the Middle East Project and the Programme in the International Politics of Natural Resources and the Environment, of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.

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