Prospects for climate change integration into GCC economic diversification strategies

Characterised by a fragile desert environment and high reliance on oil export revenues as their primary source of income, the economies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states are highly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. This both urges the strengthening of non-oil economic sectors and renders oil export revenues vulnerable to the impacts of the climate change mitigation measures adopted by other countries. Moreover, reliance on oil makes economic vulnerability to oil price shocks an inevitable challenge to the region’s economic stability. This paper studies the interplay between climate change mitigation efforts and attempts to diversify GCC economies in order to identify the potential co-benefits of mainstreaming climate change measures into long-term economic planning, and to analyse the gap in addressing climate change in GCC economic diversification processes.