IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i19p12651-d933859.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Critical, Temporal Analysis of Saudi Arabia’s Initiatives for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction in the Energy Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Muhammad Muhitur Rahman

    (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia)

  • Md Arif Hasan

    (Climate Change Response Unit, Wellington City Council, 113 The Terrace, Wellington 6011, New Zealand)

  • Md Shafiullah

    (Interdisciplinary Research Center for Renewable Energy and Power Systems, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia)

  • Mohammad Shahedur Rahman

    (Civil Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh 13318, Saudi Arabia)

  • Md Arifuzzaman

    (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia)

  • Md. Kamrul Islam

    (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia)

  • Mohammed Monirul Islam

    (Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Clinical Pharmacy, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia)

  • Syed Masiur Rahman

    (Applied Research Center for Environment & Marine Studies, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

The per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of Saudi Arabia were more than three times the global average emissions in 2019. The energy sector is the most dominant GHG-emitting sector in the country; its energy consumption has increased over five times in the last four decades, from over 2000 quadrillion joules in 1981 to around 11,000 quadrillion joules in 2019, while the share of renewable energy in 2019 was only 0.1%. To reduce GHG emissions, the Saudi Arabian government has undertaken initiatives for improving energy efficiency and increasing the production of renewable energies in the country. However, there are few investigative studies into the effectiveness of these initiatives in improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This study provides an overview of the various energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives undertaken in Saudi Arabia. Then, it evaluates the effectiveness of energy-related policies and initiatives using an indicator-based approach. In addition, this study performs temporal and econometrics analyses to understand the trends and the causal relationships among various drivers of energy sector emissions. Energy intensity and efficiency have improved moderately in recent years. This study will support policymakers in identifying significant policy gaps in reducing the emissions from the energy sector; furthermore, this study will provide a reference for tracking the progress of their policy initiatives. In addition, the methodology used in this study could be applied in other studies to evaluate various climate change policies and their progress.

Suggested Citation

  • Muhammad Muhitur Rahman & Md Arif Hasan & Md Shafiullah & Mohammad Shahedur Rahman & Md Arifuzzaman & Md. Kamrul Islam & Mohammed Monirul Islam & Syed Masiur Rahman, 2022. "A Critical, Temporal Analysis of Saudi Arabia’s Initiatives for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction in the Energy Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-19, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:19:p:12651-:d:933859
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/12651/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/12651/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aldubyan, Mohammad & Gasim, Anwar, 2021. "Energy price reform in Saudi Arabia: Modeling the economic and environmental impacts and understanding the demand response," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PB).
    2. Muhammad Muhitur Rahman & Mohammad Shahedur Rahman & Saidur R. Chowdhury & Alaeldeen Elhaj & Shaikh Abdur Razzak & Syed Abu Shoaib & Md Kamrul Islam & Mohammed Monirul Islam & Sayeed Rushd & Syed Masi, 2022. "Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Industrial Processes and Product Use Sector of Saudi Arabia—An Emerging Challenge," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-18, June.
    3. Khondaker, A.N. & Hasan, Md. Arif & Rahman, Syed Masiur & Malik, Karim & Shafiullah, Md & Muhyedeen, Musah A, 2016. "Greenhouse gas emissions from energy sector in the United Arab Emirates – An overview," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1317-1325.
    4. Jorge Blazquez & Marzio Galeotti & Baltasar Manzano & Axel Pierru & Shreekar Pradhan, 2020. "Analyzing the Effects of Saudi Arabia’s Economic Reforms Using a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Model," Discussion Papers ks--2020-dp11, King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abdulrazak H. Almaliki & Abdessamed Derdour & Enas Ali, 2023. "Air Quality Index (AQI) Prediction in Holy Makkah Based on Machine Learning Methods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-14, September.
    2. Khalid Mohammed Almatar, 2022. "Transit-Oriented Development in Saudi Arabia: Riyadh as a Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Sultan J. Alharbi & Abdulaziz S. Alaboodi, 2023. "A Review on Techno-Economic Study for Supporting Building with PV-Grid-Connected Systems under Saudi Regulations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-14, February.
    4. Mohana Alanazi & Hani Attar & Ayman Amer & Ayesha Amjad & Mahmoud Mohamed & Mohammed Sh. Majid & Khalid Yahya & Mohamed Salem, 2023. "A Comprehensive Study on the Performance of Various Tracker Systems in Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems, Saudi Arabia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-28, July.
    5. Muhammad Muhitur Rahman & Runa Akter & Jaber Bin Abdul Bari & Md Arif Hasan & Mohammad Shahedur Rahman & Syed Abu Shoaib & Ziad Nayef Shatnawi & Ammar Fayez Alshayeb & Faisal Ibrahim Shalabi & Aminur , 2022. "Analysis of Climate Change Impacts on the Food System Security of Saudi Arabia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-19, November.
    6. Fahad Saleh Al-Ismail & Md Shafiul Alam & Md Shafiullah & Md Ismail Hossain & Syed Masiur Rahman, 2023. "Impacts of Renewable Energy Generation on Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Saudi Arabia: A Comprehensive Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-19, March.
    7. Muhammad Muhitur Rahman & Syed Masiur Rahman & Md Shafiullah & Md Arif Hasan & Uneb Gazder & Abdullah Al Mamun & Umer Mansoor & Mohammad Tamim Kashifi & Omer Reshi & Md Arifuzzaman & Md Kamrul Islam &, 2022. "Energy Demand of the Road Transport Sector of Saudi Arabia—Application of a Causality-Based Machine Learning Model to Ensure Sustainable Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-21, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mazen A. Al-Sinan & Abdulaziz A. Bubshait & Fatimah Alamri, 2023. "Saudi Arabia’s Journey toward Net-Zero Emissions: Progress and Challenges," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-24, January.
    2. Hosan, Shahadat & Rahman, Md Matiar & Karmaker, Shamal Chandra & Saha, Bidyut Baran, 2023. "Energy subsidies and energy technology innovation: Policies for polygeneration systems diffusion," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    3. Fathi Alarabi Yosef & Luay Jum’a & Muntasir Alatoom, 2023. "Identifying and Categorizing Sustainable Supply Chain Practices Based on Triple Bottom Line Dimensions: Evaluation of Practice Implementation in the Cement Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-22, April.
    4. Ghazala Aziz & Rida Waheed & Majid Ibrahim Alsaggaf, 2023. "Investigating the Impact of Green Natural Resources and Green Activities on Ecological Footprint: A Perspective of Saudi Vision 2030," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-19, May.
    5. Tholkappiyan Ramachandran & Abdel-Hamid I. Mourad & Fathalla Hamed, 2022. "A Review on Solar Energy Utilization and Projects: Development in and around the UAE," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-27, May.
    6. Lindita Bande & Rahma Adan & Kim Young & Raghad Ghazal & Mukesh Jha & Amna Aldarmaki & Atmah Aldhaheri & Asma Alneyadi & Sharina Aldhaheri & Mira Khalifa, 2021. "Outdoor Thermal Comfort Study on a District Level as Part of the Housing Programs in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, United Arab Emirates," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-23, March.
    7. Diab, Fahd & Lan, Hai & Ali, Salwa, 2016. "Novel comparison study between the hybrid renewable energy systems on land and on ship," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 452-463.
    8. Al-Nassar, Nassar S. & Boubaker, Sabri & Chaibi, Anis & Makram, Beljid, 2023. "In search of hedges and safe havens during the COVID─19 pandemic: Gold versus Bitcoin, oil, and oil uncertainty," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 318-332.
    9. Durand-Lasserve, Olivier & Almutairi, Hossa & Aljarboua, Abdullah & Pierru, Axel & Pradhan, Shreekar & Murphy, Frederic, 2023. "Hard-linking a top-down economic model with a bottom-up energy system for an oil-exporting country with price controls," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    10. Tan, Caixia & Wang, Jing & Geng, Shiping & Pu, Lei & Tan, Zhongfu, 2021. "Three-level market optimization model of virtual power plant with carbon capture equipment considering copula–CVaR theory," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    11. Haider Mahmood & Alam Asadov & Muhammad Tanveer & Maham Furqan & Zhang Yu, 2022. "Impact of Oil Price, Economic Growth and Urbanization on CO 2 Emissions in GCC Countries: Asymmetry Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-21, April.
    12. Uddin, Gazi Salah & Hasan, Md. Bokhtiar & Phoumin, Han & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad & Ahmed, Ali & Troster, Victor, 2023. "Exploring the critical demand drivers of electricity consumption in Thailand," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    13. Muñoz, Juan C. & Sauma, Enzo & Muñoz, Francisco D. & Moreno, Rodrigo, 2023. "Analysis of generation investments under price controls in cross-border trade of electricity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    14. Gasim, Anwar A. & Agnolucci, Paolo & Ekins, Paul & De Lipsis, Vincenzo, 2023. "Modeling final energy demand and the impacts of energy price reform in Saudi Arabia," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    15. Ruud Weijermars & Miao Jin & Nur Iman Khamidy, 2021. "Workflow for Probabilistic Resource Estimation: Jafurah Basin Case Study (Saudi Arabia)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-24, December.
    16. Eveloy, Valerie & Gebreegziabher, Tesfaldet, 2019. "Excess electricity and power-to-gas storage potential in the future renewable-based power generation sector in the United Arab Emirates," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 426-450.
    17. Shakeel, Mohammad Raghib & Mokheimer, Esmail M.A., 2022. "A techno-economic evaluation of utility scale solar power generation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(PA).
    18. Darandary, Abdulelah & Mikayilov, Jeyhun I. & Soummane, Salaheddine, 2024. "Impacts of electricity price reform on Saudi regional fuel consumption and CO2 emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    19. Karan, Ebrahim & Asadi, Somayeh & Ntaimo, Lewis, 2016. "A stochastic optimization approach to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings and transportation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 367-377.
    20. Mohamed E. Hereher, 2022. "Climate Change during the Third Millennium—The Gulf Cooperation Council Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-19, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:19:p:12651-:d:933859. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.