Expert Commentary and Opinion
Climate Diplomacy Commentary
A New Multilateral Energy Track:
China, SCO, and MENA Climate Collaboration
10 September 2025
China is deepening energy and climate ties with MENA through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), shifting from transactional oil and gas trade to strategic partnerships. With new cooperation platforms, Egypt’s potential accession, and stronger GCC involvement, the SCO is emerging as a vehicle for advancing renewables, regional governance, and China’s role in the MENA energy transition.
Green Industrialization:
An Opportunity for MENA Economies
2 Sepember 2025
The MENA region has a great opportunity ahead. It can harness its world-class solar and wind to drive green industrialization. By turning cheap green electrons and green molecules into steel, fertilizers, and clean fuels, the region can diversify its economies, capture global markets, and create millions of jobs.
After the Blackout:
Can Iraq Swap Dependence for Clean Power?
15 August 2025
Iraq’s nationwide blackout underscored a deeper crisis: structural dependence on Iranian energy imports amid record-breaking heat. Repeated supply cuts, sanctions pressure, and a fragile grid are leaving the country dangerously exposed. Breaking the cycle will require scaling renewables, modernizing transmission, and reducing demand inefficiencies.
Decarbonization Commentary
Saudi Arabia’s Quiet Revolution: How the Kingdom is Rapidly Scaling Renewables
29 August 2025
Saudi Arabia, long defined by oil, is quietly staging one of the fastest renewable energy scale-ups in the world. With 15 GW of solar and wind awarded in a single deal and nearly 60 GW now in its pipeline, the Kingdom is rapidly shifting from plans to execution, positioning itself as both a global oil giant and an emerging clean energy leader.
Tripling Renewables in the Mediterranean:
A Path to Cooperation
18 August 2025
Cross-border projects, such as the Italy-Tunisia link and the Morocco-Spain interconnectors, demonstrate how shared infrastructure can enhance resilience. Renewables could transform a region long defined by competition into one of collaboration and cooperation.
Energy Security in the Mediterranean:
The Case for Tripling Renewables
26 August 2025
The Mediterranean faces a stark choice: remain exposed to fuel shocks, blackouts, and volatile fossil fuel markets, or triple renewable capacity to meet surging demand. As electricity use climbs and climate extremes intensify, energy security is emerging as the central driver of the region’s clean energy transition.
Resilience Commentary
The Perils of ‘Ghost Water’
1 December 2025
Across the Middle East, desalination has become the backbone of urban water supply, transforming scarcity into a managed crisis. Yet behind this surge lies a fragile foundation—aging grids, stressed seas, and under-reformed water systems—that threatens to turn today’s gains into tomorrow’s shock. Building genuine water resilience will depend on confronting these risks head-on.
Don’t Call it a Comeback’: Adaptation, COP30, and the Arab World’s Climate Stakes
11 November 2025
As COP30 opens in Belém, expectations are high for a summit that can restore credibility to the Paris process and shift attention from pledges to implementation. For the Arab world, where climate impacts are accelerating and adaptation finance remains scarce, this moment offers a chance to anchor resilience within fiscal policy, align climate and development goals, and press for equitable financial reform that can turn commitments into credible national action.
Rethinking Water Governance:
Climate Adaptation Strategies for the MENA Region
21 August 2025
Severe water scarcity is threatening stability, food security, and human development across the MENA region. Reliance on fossil aquifers, inefficient agriculture, and fragmented governance have left countries dangerously unprepared for climate extremes. Placing water at the heart of adaptation policies offers a path to resilience and long-term sustainability.
