Diversifying Assistance: NATO’s Opening for Clean Energy in the Gulf

By Hannan R. Hussain

Developing economies in the Middle East face a dual crisis: to brave a rampant COVID-19 pandemic and overcome upticks in major conflicts. An April report by the Netherlands Institute of International Relations traced some of the weakest public financing mechanisms in the Middle East to Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon. Oxfam’s July estimates put 53% of Yemen’s conflict-ravaged population on the verge of starvation – a reality that will limit Yemen’s prospective gains from a sizable primary energy market by 2035.

It is against this backdrop that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should supplement its security engagement in the Gulf with a focus on clean energy achievement. Consultation-driven energy cooperation is scarce, and any progress here will significantly compliment the region’s positive growth trajectory.

The 2020 Sustainable Development Report offers a snapshot of the Gulf’s impressive gains. Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Iraq, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan and Qatar have all at least “moderately improved” their scores on the affordable and clean energy front, with nearly 60% of these countries on track to achieve their 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) commitments. To understand the significance of these gains, consider the fact that several of these economies reported double digit GDP contractions in recent months.

Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit

Hence, for NATO to cement its position as a “shared security” actor in the Middle East, it must forge a consensus on the mutual and equal accessibility of clean fuel technologies. It can begin by leveraging its “projecting stability” approach – an inherently military-oriented concept that underlines the need to strengthen collective interests, and help regional partners strengthen their defense capabilities. From a development lens, this template has even greater merits: capabilities to advance energy efficiency remain varied across the Middle East, and NATO can help cultivate a sense of shared accessibility towards clean fuel technologies. Moreover, by encouraging nations to measure this accessibility against regional population strength, NATO can become a powerful catalyst for actionable diplomacy in the Gulf’s rapidly changing security landscape.

 Moreover, the Trans-Atlantic body’s push for a shared energy framework is unlikely to face significant resistance. Consider the example of Saudi Arabia-despite having one of the largest development and energy investment portfolios in the region, it still faces significant challenges in meeting a dozen of its SDG commitments. This creates incentives for greater interdependencies between high-income and modest economies – propelled by their similar progress trends towards the affordable and clean energy goal.

In terms of leverage, the most crucial advantage for NATO is its demonstrated alliance-building in the Gulf. It has consistently emphasized a multifaceted approach to global security challenges since the 2010 Strategic Concept, and former NATO chief Anders Rasmussen stressed that the security consequences of climate change are “not a choice.” Additionally, NATO  was recently educating its Gulf counterparts on energy infrastructure security, underlining its ability to deliver as an energy collaborator.

Together, these considerations leave the window wide-open for long-term energy cooperation in the Gulf. The fact that every second country in the region has demonstrated unprecedented compliance to its universal clean energy commitments, means NATO must also evolve its approach to conflict management.

Hannan Hussain is an Assistant Researcher at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), and an author. He is also a contributing writer on international security for CGTN. His writings on world affairs have featured in The Diplomat, South China Morning Post, The Sydney Morning Herald, among others. Hussain is an alumni of the Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR), and a former foreign affairs contributor for Indus News, Pakistan’s internationally broadcasted English news channel.

NATOs hovedkvarter is by Utenriksdepartementet UD and is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.