Renewable Energy Markets 2023: The GCC Region

The UAE and fellow countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) owe their economic development and prosperity to fossil fuels. At the same time, they are highly vulnerable to climate change and have recognised that change is needed. Recently, we have seen increasingly ambitious renewable energy targets across the region, as well as net-zero targets in five out of six GCC states. This report, which updates IRENA’s 2019 analysis, provides a broad overview of drivers and developments in the renewable energy sector across the region. It highlights how the region’s renewable power capacity has increased rapidly to more than 5.6 gigawatts in 2022 from close to zero only a decade earlier. However, renewables still only account for a negligible amount of the region’s total electricity generation capacity, while end-uses continue to rely on fossil fuels. More action to translate ambitious targets into delivery on the ground is therefore needed.