Green Revolutions? The political economy of the energy transition in the UAE, Jordan and

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Although the economies of the League of Arab States use the least renewable energy in theworld, a limited number are beginning to adopt solar and wind energy. In light of suchdevelopments, this PhD proposal seeks to understand the conditions under whichdecarbonisation takes place in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. By examiningthree case studies - Morocco, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates - the thesis willinvestigate the features of the political economy that underpin the regional (non-)adoptionof renewable energy. Drawing on discursive institutionalist scholarship, it will be argued thatdecarbonisation happens when national policy elites accept the idea that decarbonisation is'good' for their economies. The hypothesis is that when Arab state policymakers participatein international climate change policy fora, they are influenced by 'discourse coalitions' -groups that believe in the same ideas, but do not necessarily share the same interests -which in turn cause the transmission, adoption and reproduction of decarbonisation policiesin national contexts. These ideas become woven into national narratives and frame the waysin which national strategic priorities are understood. To test my hypothesis, I will interviewkey interest groups involved in regional (de)carbonisation, including representatives ofenergy ministries, policy fora, electric utilities, oil and gas companies and activist groups. Iwill then use process-tracing methods to identify and evaluate the causal mechanismsinvolved in the diffusion of ideas into national policymaking structures. Given ongoingscholarly fixation with interest- and institutional-based political economy approaches to theMENA region, this interdisciplinary project will fill important empirical and methodologicalgaps in energy transition, MENA region and political economy studies.