The past years have seen a relative spread of what is called “green economy” in some Arab countries and the emergence of business groups and non-governmental organizations engaged in defending it. There has also been an alteration of the elitist orientation due to the importance of reducing the environmental risks related to climate change, water shortage, unstable energy markets, and the increase in waste amounts. Despite this, the shift towards the increase of investments in the green economies of the majority of the Arab countries faces a number of challenges, the most prominent of which is the lower prioritization given to environmental issues on national agendas, lack of awareness of the social sectors of the importance of the greening policy, the increased correlation between water, energy, and food issues, the provision of technology transfer requirements, escalation of armed internal conflicts, the floundering Arab economies, adding financial allocations for the sustainable development policies, and the conflicting priorities of the developed countries’ aids.

The UNEP defines green economy as “a system of economic activities related to the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, and leads on the long term to the improvement of the human well-being but does not, at the same time, pose environmental risks for the next generations or major ecological scarcities.” The term green economy combines economic development with environmental considerations, in contrast with what’s known as the “black economy” which is based on the heavy use of oil, natural gas, and coal. Green economy relies mainly on renewable energy resources, green buildings, de-polluting public and private transportation, efficient water management, and wastewater management through techniques of refining and reuse.

Correlation of Paths:

In this context, participants (roughly 500 representatives from 58 countries, representing 160 institutions from the public and private sectors, regional and international organizations, research centers, universities, and the civil society) in the Arab Forum of Environment and Development (AFED) on Sustainable Development in a Changing Arab Climate, held from 10 to 11 November 2016, advised Arab governments in the closing session of the forum’s events in Beirut on the necessity of shifting to the green economy and introducing concepts of sustainable development in the conflict resolution and peace bringing initiatives and reconstruction plans for the Arab conflict countries, in a way that would help the Arab states in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Furthermore, in the climate summit COP22, held in Marrakech from the 7th to 18th of November, the Moroccan King Mohammed VI warned against the potential impacts of negligence of climate change. He said, “The cost of waiting and negligence in facing climate change and its impacts will be huge and will increase the sources of tension and crises around the world. It is time to fix the current situation, and our only choice is to work on rectifying the lost time, in the framework of a continuous and comprehensive mobilization as well as positive coordination for the sake of a decent and sustainable life for the next generations.”

The Emirati Model:

This warning could reflect the realization of some of the governing groups of the Arab region with the importance of investing in the green economy. In this regard, Morocco took steps in the largest solar energy project in the world, and the UAE is taking leaps in this field, launching the sustainable green economy initiative and building Masdar city. This is the first sustainable city in the world, created through investment in the invention of renewable energy resources, including solar energy, and developing plastic houses and organic agriculture. The UAE has become the leader in the green building field in the Arab region.

Dubai witnessed the World Green Economy Summit (WGES) which was held in October 2016 in partnership with World Climate Ltd. and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), within Dubai’s strategy for clean energy for 2050. The strategy aims at diversifying the energy resources, consolidating the clean energy contributions, and launching Dubai Energy Efficiency Program (EEP) which aims at limiting demand on energy by 30% by 2030 and converting vehicles to natural gas.

Moreover, the Dubai Green Fund was launched with a total value of $27 billion, in addition to the work on building Dubai’s green area, a magical area built specifically for attracting large and emerging companies working in the green energy field. The area will be an international center for attracting the companies working in the research and development fields as well as the innovative green energy companies. For the first time in the Middle East, the UAE also hosted the Ecocity World Summit events for 2015 on sustainable cities, which demanded giving regard to issues of safety, health, and security, relying on the self-sufficient economy, and decreasing carbon emissions.

The “State of Green Economy Report 2016” was unveiled at Expo Milano 2015 which was held under the name of ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life’ in 3 May 2015. UAE’s objective for Expo 2020 is to produce half the energy from renewable energy using solar energy.

Zayed Future Energy Prize is also awarded to the innovators and entrepreneurs in the energy and sustainable development fields. The UAE Green Festival is organized to affirm UAE’s role in reaching a clean environment free of any forms of pollution or climate change. A strategic partnership was signed between the UN and Abu Dhabi International Environmental Film Festival to encourage cinema producers to shed light on the environmental risks in the region.

The most well-known trade centers in the UAE offer their visitors environmentally-friendly products that help in building a sustainable society; for example, avoiding plastic bags and replacing them with environmental and health-treated papers ones. Furthermore, they have opened the path to those who wish to practice gardening and learn how to take care of plants and trees, in addition to Abu Dhabi festivals which include all Emirati areas and streets, to popularize the environmental culture for all nationalities and the different age groups, within the framework of “green residency, green shopping, green tourist tours, environmentally-friendly arts, and green food menus.” Thus, from the previously mentioned indicators, Abu Dhabi and Dubai are in the first ranks in terms of sustainability in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA).

Furthermore, there appear to be some factors that explain the challenges of shifting to the green economy in the Arab countries. These factors are as follows.

The Luxury of Choice:

1. Lack of prioritization of environmental issues: the environment issue is still categorized under what is called “low-level policies” which gain less interest from the successive governments in these Arab states, despite assigning ministerial portfolios or specialized programs to this issue. Meanwhile, environmental issues have turned from being of marginal interest to being of central interest in the agenda of the world states, particularly in light of the development in the field of human rights interest internationally. In this regard, the third-generation human rights group has emerged, which includes man’s right to live in a clean environment, as well as the right to sustainable development.

Hence, we can point out to the limited effectiveness of the green parties in the Arab region. Despite the fact that some states, for example, Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan, have witnessed the establishment of political parties with environmental interest, their activities and impacts have had a weak payoff in terms of placing the environment’s issue on the government and society’s agenda, spreading environment protection laws, encouraging their respect and abidance, and getting rid of wastes. This is completely different from the roles of the green parties in the European cities, for example, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Hamburg, which take part in coalition governments and were able to apply the concept of “green transit” and adopt products, services, and techniques based on sustainable development.

Lack of Awareness:

2. Lack of awareness of the community sectors with the greening policies: the most prominent obstacle for shifting to green economies is the lack of awareness of the society forces with their environmental impacts or the laws and regulations impacting it. Further, they may not even realize the economic benefits that would results from the green practices. What’s more, these notions could be faced with societal resistance. The transition to the green economy in the Arab region is supposed to result in new job opportunities to limit youth unemployment and boost economic growth.

Hence, the huge financial allocations employed in the transition to the renewable energy could lead to an increase in the prices of energy, commodities, and services related to it, adding more pressure on the economies of the regional states and in return burdening the citizen with a huge amount of the cost, in a way that could potentially lead to societal indignation against its decisions. 

3. The dilemma of correlation between water, energy, and food: there is a correlation between the three dimensions in the Arab region. The region is rich with energy and poor with water and agricultural land and suffers food shortage. These mutual correlations increase in the Arab region with the rise of community demand on resources as a result of the population growth increase, alteration in the consumption forms, and weak resources management efficiency, which will exacerbate further due to the effects of climate change.

Thus, rational management of resources requires an adjustment in the types of consumption rather than constant production increase, particularly in the fields of water, energy, and cleanliness, as financial restrictions hinder the path of green economies in the Arab states, especially those related to receiving funds, supporting skill development, and imposing green taxes.

Technology Settling:

4. Providing technology transfer requirements: Green technology and operations of high efficiency lead a key role in the transition to a green economy, and Arab states need to encourage investment in research and development in this relatively new field to the region with the exception of specific cases, such as the UAE, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon and Jordan, in different ratios, which cannot be taken as a measurement for the shortage of green economy initiatives and the scarcity of statistics and data on it.

Some writing suggest that one of the requirements for a successful transition process is the readiness of the national infrastructure for the production of identical copies of the latest global technology and adapting them to local needs. This may be achieved through the establishment of an alliance between the ministries of education, universities, vocational training institutes, and technical schools, to train future generations to shift in the sectors of energy efficiency, water, sustainable transport, agriculture, and other sectors involved in environmental goods and services.

5. Intensification of internal armed conflicts: After about six years of internal armed conflicts in the Arab region, it seems that the political settlement processes to those conflicts may become significantly complicated. Perhaps what makes it difficult is widening its scope to include a number of countries, notably Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, as well as the multiplicity of internal parties in these conflicting areas between structures of state armies that represent states, even if they were failing or were fragile, and gunmen without states.

Thus, the process of settling the Arab armed conflicts faces a large number of challenges that hinder its progress and prevent the possibility of its completion, as some of the conflicts are associated with some psychological dimensions among conflicting parties in terms of lack of trust, others with regard to their procedural nature and " the next day" issues of the same settlement operations. Some are connected to formation of groups of economic interests, whose interests require the continuity of the conflict, in addition to the external role, whether regional or international, disrupting this track. 

This all makes the interest in green economy in some Arab countries a kind of economic luxury in a time when the survival of the state faces fundamental challenges, in addition to facing trans-border terrorism. 

Structural Issues:

6. Faltering Arab economies: this is partly linked to the previous factor, as Arab conflicts are among the largest drivers of economic losses to the region. According to a report launched by the Economic and Social Commission "ESCWA" on 10 November in Beirut, the Arab internal armed conflicts cost the region economic losses of nearly $614 billion, or up to about 6% of GDP for the Arab states during the period 2011 -2015, and a deficit in the public finances was worth $243 billion, leading to exacerbating unemployment, corruption and poverty, not only in countries of conflict, but also in their geographical neighboring states.

A recent study issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in September 2016 points out that armed conflicts do not only destroy the economies of the countries in which the combat operations spin, but they also undermine growth in neighboring countries, where GDP declined by ratios ranging between 6 and 15 percentage points on average.

Christine Lagarde, Director General of the IMF said on the 20th of September "The economies of the Middle East are destructed because of conflicts, wars and refugee crises, and the adoption of appropriate policies can ease the devastating effects.”

She added that "In the region there are over 20 million people displaced and an additional 10 million refugees, most of the means of production in areas of conflict have been destructed, and losses at the level of wealth and revenue are tremendous, while human capital is weakened due to lack of employment and education.”

The majority of economic estimates, whether issued by research institutions, regional bodies, or international organizations, reveal that it is difficult for non-Gulf Arab economies to maintain the level of investments that are necessary to put these economies on a sustainable growth path, without external financial assistance. Moreover, some countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) were affected, as they experience reduction in public spending due to the decline in oil prices, which explains the possible lack of interest of some governments in the green growth projects during the coming period.

Limited funds:

7. Financial allocations for sustainable development policies: The United Nations Convention believes in climate change and the Kyoto Protocol, including the clean development mechanism, global environment facility, global funding of operations of adapting to climate change and reducing its impact. These mechanisms facilitate participation in the green economy. However, the possibilities of Arab states benefiting from them are limited.

Despite the funding by the Arab Development Bank to projects in the field of sustainable development, the Arab region needs more funding, which explains the efforts to create an Arab Environment Facility, upon which lies the responsibility of financing green initiatives and projects. Further, national banks are reluctant to fund green projects due to the absence of existing feasibility studies based on adequate information, which enables the evaluation of the benefits or risks of the project.

Crammed priorities

8. Conflict of priorities of developed countries' aids: These countries have become less interested in the issue of climate adaptation and its costs on the states in the south, particularly the African and Arab countries hit by storms, droughts, floods and various natural disasters, which exceeds the international aid provided to them from the North, so priority in financial spending is given to the protection of human lives, meeting basic needs, and addressing physical damage to infrastructure, which is parallel with the expansion of the scope of humanitarian aid in areas of conflict and in the neighboring countries.

A recent World Bank report entitled "Building the Resilience of the Poor in the Face of Natural Disasters" has pointed out that natural disasters push about 26 million people into poverty each year, and cause losses of over $500 billion, which makes advanced countries uphold the importance of warding off risks of natural disasters above supporting sustainable development policies, despite the importance of integration between the two entrances. Marrakech summit has reiterated the necessity for states to commit to their financial obligations and contributions to the Green Fund which was approved by the Paris summit with a capital of $ 100 billion annually starting from 2020.

Entrances to Development

To sum up, green economy is one of the strategic pillars for future economies in the world. Here, in writings and in Arab, regional and international forums, recommendations are put forward that will push the Arab economies towards a green sustainable path. The most prominent of the said recommendations is what came in the Ninth Arab Forum for Environment and Development, which is the creation of a national agency of sustainable development within each Arab country separately to ensure the application of an institutional perspective that combines integration developmental dimensions with monitoring and evaluation.

There is also a need to support inter-Arab cooperation in the investment of their respective comparative advantages, particularly in the area of natural resources, as well as to encourage investment in environmentally-friendly projects, with the increase in financial allocations directed to research  and development programs in support of sustainable development. In light of the widespread impact of internal armed conflicts in some Arab countries and the flow of refugees, peace mixed with sustainable development became one of the main requirements for the countries of the region seeking stability.