Abstract
Considering the importance of energy for social and economic development, access to clean, affordable and reliable energy has been adopted as one of the United Nations sustainable development goals that all countries aim to achieve by 2030. However, much of the world's energy is still produced from fossil fuels and thus the progress towards clean and renewable energy is slow. This paper explores the key challenges towards renewable energy in Gulf Cooperation Council countries blessed with plenty of oil and gas reserves. The key challenges identified through literature review were ranked using a quantitative approach through the data collected from a selective sample across the six countries. These challenges in order of importance were found to be policies and regulations, manpower experience and competencies, renewable energy education, public awareness, costs and incentives for renewable energy and government commitment. The findings could be helpful to decision makers and government organisations in the region to develop strategies to overcome these identified challenges.
Highlights
Energy has become an integral requirement of today’s modern life and it is considered as a fundamental element for social and economic growth, the United Nations report indicated that 13% of the earth's populations still have no access to modern electricity
Global warming and climate change are some of the key challenges to our modern life which need to be tackled properly
The main cause of global warming and climate change is the extensive use of fossil fuels which produce greenhouse gases and affect the earth's temperature
Summary
Energy has become an integral requirement of today’s modern life and it is considered as a fundamental element for social and economic growth, the United Nations report indicated that 13% of the earth's populations still have no access to modern electricity. Energy is considered as the dominant contributor to climate change, which is estimated for around 60% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Most of the current energy production is based on conventional resources such as oil, gas, and coal which on the one hand are non-sustainable and, on the other hand, these resources produce greenhouse gases. These gases are considered a threat to the earth due to its contribution to global warming and climate change. This emission quite alarming and if not tackled properly, and if it is increased at the same level, it would reach 41.58 gigatonnes by 2028
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