Assessment of climate change mitigation readiness in the Kingdom of Bahrain

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCCSM-08-2021-0096
• Published date: 25 January 2023
• Date: 25 January 2023
• Pages: 391-411
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Environmental issues,Climate change
• Author: Maha Alsabbagh,Waheeb Essa Alnaser

Assessment of climate change

mitigation readiness in the

Kingdom of Bahrain

Maha Alsabbagh and Waheeb Essa Alnaser

Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Arabian Gulf University,

Manama, Bahrain

Abstract

Purpose –This study aims to assess readiness for climate change mitigation in the Kingdom of

Bahrain.

Design/methodology/approach –Two stages were followed aiming at understanding the situation

related to climate change mitigation in Bahrain and assessing the mitigation readiness. Baseline and

mitigation scenarios for the period 2019–2040 were developed using the Low Emissions Analysis Platform

softwarebased on historical emissions and energy data for the period 1990–2018. Using the analytichierarchy

process, the mitigation readiness was assessed by 13 experts, and priority areas for mitigation actionwere

identified.

Findings –CO

2

e emissions are projected to grow continuously. However, no explicit climate change

strategy is in place yet. Mitigation is tackled implicitly through energy efficiency and renewable energy

initiatives. These initiatives can make 23% reduction in CO

2

e emissions by 2040. Adopting additional

measures is needed to achieve the recently set emission reduction target of 30% by 2035. The findings

revealed potential areas forimproving mitigation efforts in Bahrain. Priority areas for mitigationactions, as

identified by experts, were mainly related to policy and governance. Focus needs to be paid to the social

aspect of climatechange mitigation.

Originality/value –Literatureon mitigation readiness in developing countries is sparse.Knowledge of the

requirements for climatechange mitigation and assessment of the country’s performance can prioritizeareas

for improving mitigation action. Several lessons can be learnt from the case of Bahrain. In addition, the

adopted methodology can be applied to other developing or Arab countries at local or institutional levels.

However,its application to specific sectors may require adjustments.

Keywords AHP, Climate change mitigation, LEAP, Survey

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Countries that ratified the Paris Agreement were required to submit or update their

Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by 2020, outlining the actions they are

implementing to reduce CO

2

equivalent (CO

2

e) emissions according to a five-year cycle of

increasingly climate change mitigation action. Most of these NDCs include mitigation

targets and proposed actions for their achievement. However, the submissions of a few

countries lack explicit CO

2

e emission targets and only specify mitigationmeasures or non-

© Maha Alsabbagh and Waheeb Essa Alnaser. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This

article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may

reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and

non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full

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Climate

change

mitigation

readiness

391

Received26 August 2021

Revised25 January 2022

1June2022

28August 2022

3November 2022

Accepted28 November 2022

InternationalJournal of Climate

ChangeStrategies and

Management

Vol.15 No. 3, 2023

pp. 391-411

EmeraldPublishing Limited

1756-8692

DOI 10.1108/IJCCSM-08-2021-0096

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/1756-8692.htm

CO

2

e emission targets (Climate Watch, 2021). These countries are mostly developing

countries with limited financial and technicalcapacities required to support the adoption of

comprehensive climatechange mitigation measures.

CO

2

e emissions have been reduced in several industrialized countries, many of

which have set zero-emission targets for different sectors. However, CO

2

eemissionsare

not expected to peak before 2030 in several developing countries (United Nations

Environment Program, 2022), possibly because of the strong coupling between

development and fossil fuel consumption. Although many developing countries

submitted their national communications, including sections on mitigation, to the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the 1990s or

2000s, implementation of the mitigation concept itself along with necessary actions is a

very recent initiative. With the impacts of climate change increasing at a fast pace,

many countries worldwide, especially developing countries, have prioritized strategies

for adapting to climate change, perhaps because the impacts are more tangibleand are

occurring rapidly. Mitigation strategies may have received less attention during the

past years, given that their impacts take time to manifest.In addition, many developing

countries contribute relatively low absolute emissions, and their impacts on climate

change are minimal. Therefore, an explicit climate change strategy or CO

2

eemissions

reduction target remained absent in these countries, including Bahrain, until rece ntly

when targeting carbon neutrality by 2060 was announced during the United Nations

Climate Change Conference (COP 26).

This study was aimed at examining the readiness for climate change mitigation in

Bahrain, one of the six Gulf CooperationCouncil (GCC) countries. Bahrain is a high-income,

oil-producing and a developing country. Whereas the global share of Bahrain’sCO

2

e

emissions is negligible (around 0.1%) (Supreme Council for Environment, 2021), its per

capita CO

2

e emissions are amongst the highest in the world (19.9 metric tonnes of CO

2

per

capita compared with the global averageof 4.4 metric tonnes) (InternationalEnergy Agency,

2022), and its economy is highly energy intensive [1] (9.2 gigajoule/thousand 2015 USD in

2019 compared with a global average of 4.8 gigajoule/thousand 2015 USD) (International

Energy Agency, 2022).

Climate change mitigation can stabilize the concentration of CO

2

e at a level that

prevents human interference with climate system and reduces negative effects of global

warming (United Nations, 1992;Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2022). In

addition, climate change mitigation can protect human lives and well-being, secure food

production and ensure economic growth in a sustainable manner (Lamb and Steinberger,

2017;United Nations, 1992). Knowledge of the requirements for climate change

mitigation can provide guiding inputs that can facilitate various countries’endeavors to

reduce their CO

2

e emissions, thus enabling them to stay on track and meet their

international commitments relating to climate change. It can also contribute to the

achievement of several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).In specific, it contributes

to providing clean energy (SDG 7), fostering innovation (SDG 9), making cities

sustainable (SDG 11), ensuring sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12) and

taking climate action (SDG 13). This study addresses a knowledge gap concerning

readiness for climate change mitigation in developing countries within the literature and

provides inputs on the use of the readiness assessment framework to inform climate-

related policies.

This study comprises six sections.Section 2 discusses the relevant literature. Section 3 of

this study elaborateson the methodology used, followed by a presentation and discussionof

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