Thesis Title: Terraforming Tabuk: Green Transition in Saudi Arabia
Abstract:
Primary Supervisor: My doctoral research examines the possibilities of green transition in the Middle East. I take Saudi Arabia’s Neom, a multi-billion infrastructure programme under construction on the country’s northern borders, as my starting point and case study. Today, half of the world’s oil reserves lie in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia alone holds 17% of the world’s total. These reserves are worth trillions of dollars. Since the Second World War, their revenues facilitated the rapid building of major urban settlements across regions long considered uninhabitable. Through oil, the desert Kingdom enjoyed decades of unique geopolitical leverage and above-average human development. Today, the very source of this advantage is tied to a growing global ecological crisis. Scientists and activists have resolutely linked fossil fuel to climate change, placing pressure on states and companies to abandon the lucrative fuel. As calls for the abandonment of oil mounts, how will Saudi Arabia navigate the contradiction at the heart of its development trajectory? Neom, the bulwark of Saudi Arabia’s so-called green transition efforts, presents a unique opportunity to study the tensions at the heart of this historical conjuncture for Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Through combined archival and ethnographic research, my research unpacks and outlines the forces shaping Saudi Arabia’s trajectory in a warming world.
Publications: Zaidan, M. (2024). Climate Impacts on Security in Sub-Saharan Africa. K4DD Rapid Evidence Review 90. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies. DOI: 10.19088/K4DD.2024.039
Zaidan, M. (2024). Integrating Climate into Humanitarian and Peacebuilding Programming in Sub-Saharan Africa. K4DD Rapid Evidence Review 91. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies. DOI: 10.19088/K4DD.2024.042
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