The most prominent such scheme is this one. Abu Dhabi has announced an enormouse project focusing on renewables, named MASDAR. The details are at http://www.masdaruae.com/. Not clear how fast it¹ll be rolled out.
As to the CDM, they are certainly developing countries in Kyoto parlance, and eligible for CDM projects. They have at best a tiny number of projects however in 2007, 5% of all CDM projects were in the rest of Asia¹, that is taking india and China out (which have 79% of all CDM projects between them China having 73%!) (World Bank figures State and trends of the carbon market 2008). So OPEC countries have at best a handful of projects. Apart from the MASDAR proejct, their interest at the moment has been in promoting Carbon Capture and Storage in the CDM, that would probably get them much more interested in the Kyoto mechanisms (after 2012 however). Much of their interest is that CCS can enable you to pump even more oil and gas out of the ground of course, and then get lovely CDM credits for it. Cheers Mat -- Matthew Paterson Professor of Political Science School of Political Studies Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa 55, rue Laurier est / 55 Laurier East Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5 Canada tel: +1 613 562-5800 x1716 Fax +1 613 562-5371 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web site: http://www.socialsciences.uottawa.ca/pol/eng/index.asp Co-editor, Global Environmental Politics: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/glep From: William Hipwell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Organization: VUW Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 09:00:21 -0400 To: <gep-ed@listserve1.allegheny.edu> Subject: Solar Energy and the Middle East Dear Colleagues: I am conducting research into alternative energy, in part for the purposes of developing a distance-learning course and am wondering if anyone could provide guidance in one particular area. I am interested in identifying recent sources of information about the use of solar energy in the Middle East, including such things as government policies, applications, public perceptions, multinational corporations active in the area and so forth. I have been given to understand that despite their oil wealth, most ME countries are designated as "developing" for the purposes of Kyoto mechanisms. Is this true? Thanks for any assistance. I will compile responses and re-release a compendium to the list. Cheers, Bill