Forecasting CO2 emissions in the Persian Gulf States.

The three Persian Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Qatar have dominated the Middle East's engagement with Afghanistan over the past three decades. This is unlikely to change as Afghanistan faces twin security and political challenges arising from the pullback of foreign troops and a presidential election in 2014. Buffeted by three years of upheaval across the Arab world, the primary objective of Saudi and Emirati officials in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi after the withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) will be to prevent Afghanistan from unraveling in ways that could threaten the balance of power in the broader regional neighborhood. This reflects the fact that the Iranian shadow looms large over foreign policy formulation in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as does a feeling of incomprehension at recent U.S. decisions on Syria and nuclear negotiations with Iran. Together, these two trends have triggered a more assertive regional policy as leaders in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have increasingly made unilateral decisions to secure national interests. Qatari policy, by contrast, is likely to become more introspective as the new emir focuses on domestic issues and repairing diplomatic relationships damaged by his father's foreign policy adventurism.The Persian Gulf States and AfghanistanIn different ways, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar have long records of involvement in Afghanistan, particularly in the post-1979 era. During the 1980s, Saudi Arabia was a key financier of the Afghan resistance to the Soviet occupation, both through official state channels and informal contributions from private citizens and charities. This occurred as the al-Saud responded to the 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca by Islamist militants by placing greater emphasis on what Thomas Hegghammer has labelled alarmist pan-Islamism.1 Although Saudi Arabia was one of three countries (along with the UAE and Pakistan) to recognize the Taliban regime after it took power in 1996, relations frayed in 1998 when the Taliban rebuffed Saudi requests to return Osama bin Laden to the kingdom. Nevertheless, it was only after the September 11 terrorist attacks that ties were broken altogether, whereupon Riyadh gave its backing to the new Afghan government of Hamid Karzai and supported it with reconstruction assistance and direct foreign aid.2As mentioned above, the UAE also extended diplomatic recognition to the Taliban regime prior to September 11. Steve Coll has recounted how, shortly after the African embassy bombings in August 1998, a U.S. retaliatory strike against a hunting camp in western Afghanistan where bin Laden was believed to be taking refuge had to be aborted after surveillance imagery indicated that high-level UAE officials, possibly including members of the ruling family, might be present.3 A post-September 11 investigation by U.S. Treasury officials led to accusations that Dubai was a conduit for Taliban gold reserves, and small aircraft reportedly laden with gold were allegedly permitted to depart Dubai and Sharjah for Kabul and Kandahar in the days following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001.4 Similar to Saudi Arabia, the UAE quickly switched its support to the Karzai government and by 2009 was providing 14% of its total foreign aid budget to Afghanistan.5 Less promisingly, the collapse of the real-estate bubble in Dubai in 2008 led in part to the failure of the Da Kabul bank two years later amid persistent allegations of widespread corruption at the heart of the Karzai government (and family) that saw over $3 billion in cash being flown out of Afghanistan. Much of the money was believed to end up in Dubai either as luxury investments that subsequently turned sour during the financial crisis or to benefit from its tight banking secrecy laws.6Qatar has less of a backstory in Afghanistan, but in 2012 a delegation of eight senior Taliban representatives arrived in Doha to set up an office in preparation for mediation talks with members of the Afghan High Peace Council. …

The purpose of this study is to learn how many foreign countries are using U.S. public relations firms to influence U.S. policy makers and to support their own causes. It is estimated that foreign countries spend more than $150 million every year on U.S. public relations firms. These public relations campaigns were designed to achieve differing political, economic, social and educational goals in the United States. Using American government data, this study will concentrate on three Persian Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait, who are among the leading countries that have been spending millions of dollars on U.S. public relations campaigns. Saudi Arabia is a pioneering country in this field, especially active since the early 1970s. After the September 11, 2001, bombing of World Trade Center, Saudi Arabia was criticized by the U.S. Congress for hosting and supporting terrorist organizations. After the Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI) scandal, in which the UAE was a major shareholder in the bank, UAE hired several U.S. public relations, lobbying, and law firms to overcome this problem. Kuwait noticed the importance of public relations and, following the invasion of their country by Iraq in 1990, turned to Hill & Knowlton (H&K) for support. The government of Kuwait in exile, using a front group called the Citizens for a Free Kuwait (CFFK), spent more than $11 million on a successful propaganda campaign to get the United States government to intervene. As a result of these successful campaigns, when there are political crises between the U.S. government and Arab Gulf States, public relations (PR) spending on behalf of these countries rises.

Global warming is currently one of the world's most pressing issues. It has been a reason behind the proliferation of renewable energy (RE) systems. The majority of renewable energy sources are sustainable and release less carbon, in contrast to fossil fuels, which is why they have recently gained favour. Solar, wind, and geothermal energy have the potential to be employed in these Gulf countries to meet the region's power production needs. This is due to the Gulf country's strategic location as well as its immense oil and natural resource richness. According to previous researchers, the primary source of economic benefits for Gulf countries is global energy consumption by using crude oil and fossil fuels. The GCC is a major player in the global energy market. It is home to some of the world's largest oil and gas reserves and plays a significant role in producing and exporting energy resources. In future, as the world's energy needs shift towards renewable sources, the demand for traditional energy sources like oil and gas may decline. This could reduce the GCC's importance as a global energy supplier. Hence Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have made efforts to diversify their economies away from dependence on oil and gas exports. Saudi Arabia has launched several initiatives aimed at diversifying its economy. The most notable of these is the Vision 2030 program, which seeks to reduce the country's dependence on oil and create new economic sectors, such as tourism, entertainment, and technology. The government has also invested heavily in infrastructure projects, such as the construction of the NEOM megacity and the Red Sea Project, which are aimed at attracting foreign investment and creating new jobs. Similarly, the United Arab Emirates has been at the forefront of economic diversification, with its government launching several initiatives aimed at promoting innovation, entrepreneurship, and knowledge-based industries. One of the most notable initiatives is the Dubai Future Accelerators Programme, which brings together startups and government agencies to work on cutting-edge technologies and solutions. Additionally, the United Arab Emirates is investing heavily in renewable energy to generate 50% of its electricity from clean sources by 2050. Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are working towards building more diversified, knowledge-based economies that can compete in the global marketplace. At the same time, the road ahead may be challenging because of technical challenges, Economic challenges, lack of infrastructure, Regulatory challenges, Heavy Dependence on oil, Skilled labour shortage, and Regulatory environment. While taking the above as the context, the paper shall look at renewable energy development in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The following are major research questions which shall be explored and analysed: • How has the development of renewable energy technologies and infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates progressed over time, and what factors have influenced this development? • What are the future plans and potential for continued growth and expansion of renewable energy in these countries? • What will be the future and potential renewable energy sources and policies in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and what are the barriers and opportunities for their adoption and integration into the energy mix? • How successful have Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates' economic diversification efforts been in reducing reliance on oil revenues? • What are the similarities and differences between the development of renewable energy technologies and policies in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates compared to the rest of the world? • What are the factors that have contributed to the similarities and differences, and how do they impact the potential for further growth and expansion of renewable energy in these countries relative to the rest of the world? This paper presents a literature-based study. The study covers capacities, projects, policies, and frameworks in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In this study, we would make use of secondary data that has been gathered from previously published statistics and relevant literature.

Objectives: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, and accounts for one-third of hospitalizations for cardiac disturbances. The majority of data on management of AF patients are from western countries, with limited information available from the Middle East region. The objective of this study was to characterize treatment patterns and health resource utilization among AF patients in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and United Arab Emirates (UAE). METHODS: A retrospective chart review was undertaken at three hospitals in UAE and three in KSA, to identify AF patients diagnosed between January 2005 and June 2010. Patient charts were sampled consecutively backwards by diagnosis date, from June 2010 until the target sample was reached. AF was identified based on ICD-9 code (427.31), from a sample of patients defined by any history of anticoagulant use. Data on demographic and disease-related characteristics, treatment patterns, health resource utilization, and international normalized ratio (INR) control were abstracted from diagnosis until June 2012. AF was categorized as chronic (persistent, long-standing or permanent) or paroxysmal. RESULTS: Among eligible AF patients (UAE, n=157, KSA, n=152), the mean age at diagnosis was 69 years in UAE and 66 years in KSA. Male patients comprised 52.9% of the UAE sample and 48.7% of the KSA sample. The majority were diagnosed with chronic AF (80.9% in UAE, 63.7% in KSA) and had a CHADS 2 score ≥2 at diagnosis (77.1% in UAE, 71.1% in KSA). Treatments prescribed to AF patients differed between countries: warfarin monotherapy was widely used in UAE (59.9%); while a variety of warfarin- and aspirin-based combination therapies were used in KSA, with no single dominant regimen. Warfarin + bisoprolol (12.5%) and aspirin + bisoprolol (10.5%) combination therapies were the most common regimens in KSA. Patterns of health care utilization also varied. In KSA, 29.6% of patients were hospitalized, and 30.9% visited the emergency room, compared to 8.9% and 11.5%, respectively, in UAE. Outpatient visits were more frequent in UAE, with a mean of 1.0 visits per patient per year, compared to 0.3 visits per patient per year in KSA. In both regions, the most common clinical outcome was ischemic/unspecified stroke, with an incidence of 7.0% in UAE and 5.3% in KSA. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with AF in UAE and KSA were relatively young compared to age distributions reported in other regions. Treatments and health resources used by AF patients varied between KSA and UAE. Warfarin monotherapy was widely used in UAE, while a variety of monotherapy and combination therapy regimens were used in KSA. Health care resource utilization was high in this population, particularly hospitalization rates in KSA. While some differences may result from differences in patient and disease characteristics, they likely also reflect variation in management strategies across the regions.

Oil and gas are key energy sources in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. The present study examines the asymmetrical environmental effects of these energy sources and also tests the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) from 1975 to 2019. In the long run, the EKC is corroborated in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. But the EKC is not validated in the GCC Panel. Increasing oil consumption raises carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in all investigated GCC countries, and decreasing oil consumption reduces CO2 emissions in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The effect of oil consumption is found asymmetrical in Qatar and symmetrical in the rest of GCC countries. Increasing natural gas consumption (NGC) carries a positive effect in all investigated GCC countries, and decreasing NGC reduces emissions in Oman, Qatar, and the UAE. Moreover, NGC's effects are asymmetrically in all GCC countries except Qatar. In the panel estimates, both increasing and decreasing oil and NGC have positive effects on CO2 emissions. The long-run effect of oil consumption on CO2 emissions is larger than the effect of NGC in most GCC economies and panel results. In the short run, increasing and decreasing oil consumption and NGC have a positive effect on emissions in all investigated economies except Saudi Arabia. In the long run, coefficients of decreasing oil consumption are found significantly greater than coefficients of increasing NGC in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the whole GCC. This finding corroborates that increasing CO2 emissions with increasing NGC is lower than decreasing CO2 emissions with decreasing oil consumption. Hence, we recommend these countries switch from oil consumption to NGC to reduce overall CO2 emissions.

: In May of this year, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will celebrate its eighth anniversary. Principally formed to consolidate the economic interests of six Persian Gulf states--Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)--the GCC has evolved into an astute political instrument with ever increasing military power. Fearful that the Iran-Iraq war would spread to the Western Gulf, the level of cooperation between the GCC states transcended age-old rivalries and unsettled disputes. Now that the Gulf war has subsided, these old rivalries and disputes may surface, and superpower initiatives may cause major regional policy changes. This paper seeks to broadly analyzed the past, present and future role of the GCC in the geopolitics of the Persian Gulf region. It first addresses the social threats endemic to each GCC state and the threats to stability they pose. Next, the paper provides a broad historical perspective of U.S.-Persian Gulf regional policy including how it evolved and how the Iranian revolution caused it to be reevaluated. Finally, the paper suggests that the void left by the demise of the twin pillars policy has not been filled and that allowing the GCC to become a de facto U.S. surrogate is not in the best interest of regional stability.

Oil prices and rapidly increasing urbanization could have a long-lasting impact on the environment in oil-abundant Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Therefore, the environmental role of oil price, economic growth, and urbanization on CO2 emissions should be tested. The present study investigates the impact of oil price, economic growth, and urbanization on CO2 emissions in those countries, considering asymmetrical relationships. For this purpose, a nonlinear autoregressive distributive lag cointegration approach is applied in GCC countries during the 1980–2019 period, and cointegration is corroborated in all investigated models. Long-run results show that rising economic growth positively affects CO2 emissions in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Decreasing economic growth positively affects CO2 emissions in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Moreover, the rising oil price has a positive impact on CO2 emissions and shows a scale effect in Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Moreover, it has a negative effect and corroborates technique and composition effects in Kuwait and the UAE. Further, decreasing oil prices has a positive impact on CO2 emissions in Bahrain and has a negative effect in Kuwait and the UAE. Lastly, urbanization positively affects CO2 emissions in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE. Economic growth is found asymmetrical in all GCC countries, and the asymmetrical effect of oil price is also observed in all GCC countries except the UAE.

As part of the efforts to ensure a place in the global competitive landscape, Oman is aligning itself with sustainable development through diversified economic measures. To address the United Nations thirteenth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) which is climate action, the stakeholders of Oman need to understand the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and compare the amount of CO2 with the emissions in neighbouring Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries such as United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). In this research, an attempt is being made to collect the CO2 emission for all these countries and show them on a web map using python programming language. The data ranging from year 1964 to 2021 is collected from CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Comma Separated Values (csv) format. For each country, an approximate location for Capital in terms of Latitude and Longitude is taken from google maps. Using folium library of python, these locations and CO2 emission for a particular year is plotted on google map Application Programming Interface (API). The findings reveal that Oman’s CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and industry in 2022 year is 72 million tonnes which is relatively lower when compared to those of smaller GCC countries such as Qatar (101 million tonnes) and the UAE (244 million tonnes). Nonetheless, a gradual upward trend of 12 million tonnes of CO2 emissions has been observed in Oman between the years 2019 to 2022. The python program provides an easy way to visualise the CO2 emission heatmap without the need of any proprietary software or program.

The globe is now in ecological turmoil as a result of the unrelenting increase in global warming. As a result, governments worldwide are committing to decarbonizing the environment, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) playing an important role in this effort. Hence, this paper evaluates the nonlinear (asymmetric) impact of natural gas consumption on renewable energy consumption and economic growth in the KSA and the UAE utilizing data stretching from 1990 to 2020. The study also considers other drivers of renewable energy consumption and economic growth, such as trade openness and CO2 emissions. The study utilizes nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) to evaluate these associations. The outcomes of bounds nonlinear ARDL (NARDL), affirm the long-run association between the variables in both countries. The nonlinear results show that positive and negative shocks in natural gas consumption have a negative impact on renewable energy in both UAE and KSA. In contrast, positive and negative shocks in natural gas consumption impact economic growth positively. The study proposed vital policy recommendations based on these results.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was twofold: to examine the correlation between CO2 emissions and economic development in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and to compare the contributions of the oil, gas, and cement sectors to the CO2 emission in each GCC country.Study design/methodology/approach: The research design used was descriptive, and cross-sectional independence, panel autoregressive distributed lag, pooled ordinary least squares and ordinary least squares methods were used to analyze data.Sample and data: The study used secondary data on CO2 emissions and gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates from 1981 to 2021 and on the specific contributions of the oil, gas, and cement sectors from 1985 to 2022.Results: The study found a long-term cointegration between CO2 emissions and the GDP growth rate in the GCC countries. However, in short term, economic growth did not have a significant impact on CO2 emissions. The major contributor to the CO2 emissions in Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar was the oil sector, whereas that in the United Arab Emirates was the cement sector. CO2 emissions in Bahrain were significantly affected by the gas sector.Originality/value: The work is original and innovative, offering new insights through sector-specific comparisons across the GCC countries. It emphasizes the urgent need to cultivate renewable energy sources to protect the environment.Research limitations/implications: The study excludes the transportation, manufacturing, and agriculture sectors, although these also significantly contribute to CO2 emissions. The study suggests the need for targeted policies to mitigate emissions and promote sustainable development in the GCC countries.

Kicking the Oil Addiction

The national interests of weak states are subject both to external pressures, applied by strong states, and internal pressures. It is assumed that due to their weakness, external demands have a gre...

I. IntroductionGas to Liquids (GTL) is one of clean alternative fuels which loosely defined terms that is generally used to describe the chemical conversion of natural gas to some type of liquid products. As such, it excludes the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG), but includes the conversion of gas to methanol, liquid fuels, and petrochemicals, being the most common applications. In other words, Gas to liquids (GTL) technology is used to convert a carbon containing feedstock such as natural gas, to synthetic diesel fuels and further developed by oil companies. Fewer studies investigated the use of GTL diesel with the existing diesel engines to study the effect of using this new alternative fuel on the efficiency and emissions in these engines. Hence, the objectives of this study are to investigate the behavior of the GTL – diesel fuel blends in context of different combustion characteristics, engine performance and emissions. It is expected that the outcomes of this study will shed further light o...

First Confirmed Cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) Infection in the United States, Updated Information on the Epidemiology of MERS-CoV Infection, and Guidance for the Public, Clinicians, and Public Health Authorities—May 2014

The human rights protection system in the Middle East, especially in the Persian Gulf states, is often discussed in the literature in the context of women’s rights or the use of torture and the death penalty. An important topic related to human rights in the modern world is the kafala system, which has been operating in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, i.e., Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, and Jordan for years. The states have perceived it as a system of foreign worker protection. According to the latest data, it is estimated that 25 million migrants live and work in the GCC countries, 70% of the Gulf Cooperation Council workforce consists of migrant workers, and 49% of the total GCC population are migrants. The kafala system determines the dependence between a foreign employee and an Arab employer, which is often associated with the emergence of various types of violations of employee rights and threats to their lives and health.