The viability of energy efficiency in facilitating Saudi Arabia's journey toward net-zero emissions

Belaid Fateh and Camille Massié

Energy Economics, 2023, vol. 124, issue C

Abstract: Assessing the contribution of energy efficiency to climate change mitigation is crucial as global warming continues to persist. This study assesses the impact of energy efficiency on carbon intensity in Saudi Arabia and evaluates its potential contributions to the country's net-zero emissions target. We analyze time-series data for Saudi Arabia from 1971 to 2020 and estimate a quantile regression model. The results show that energy efficiency is critical for mitigating carbon dioxide emissions, indicating the importance of activating this lever to accelerate the decarbonization process. The model is robust to changes in the proxy for energy efficiency, confirming energy efficiency's ability to mitigate environmental degradation in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, energy efficiency has a greater impact on the twenty-fifth to seventy-fifth quantiles of carbon intensity than on the tenth and ninetieth quantiles. These heterogeneous effects across carbon intensity quantiles should be considered when the Saudi government discusses and sets its decarbonization objectives. We further extend the analysis by forecasting carbon intensity through 2060 under a scenario in which energy efficiency improves. The results show that energy efficiency improvements may account for up to one-fifth of Saudi Arabia's decarbonization by 2060. This finding underscores energy efficiency's importance for achieving climate stability and building a better future.

Keywords: Climate change; Energy efficiency; Time series quantile; Net-zero objectives; Saudi Arabia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988323002633
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:124:y:2023:i:c:s0140988323002633

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2023.106765

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Economics is currently edited by R. S. J. Tol, Beng Ang, Lance Bachmeier, Perry Sadorsky, Ugur Soytas and J. P. Weyant

More articles in Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().