ABSTRACT
Countries belonging to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have been planning to transform into knowledge economies for some time. Individually and collectively, however, they have faced difficulties in realizing their goals for several reasons, including a lack of expertise among citizens to support development of cutting-edge research and insufficient resources to compete with global leaders in research and development (R&D).
This chapter will explore how a more centralized GCC renewable energy policy can contribute to transforming the region into a knowledge economy, in part by addressing the shortcomings of previous efforts. In particular, GCC countries might opt to pool their resources to boost the effectiveness of their R&D, while also adopting technology nationalization policies to build the requisite homegrown talent as quickly as possible. The chapter will also explore how more centralized renewables policies can contribute to enhancing GCC economic integration.
