Reforming electricity, water, and fuel subsidies in the United Arab Emirates

Lead PI: Tim Boersma, Steve Griffiths

Unit Affiliation: Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP)

April 2017 - Ongoing
Active
Asia ; Middle East ; United Arab Emirates ; Abu Dhabi ; Dubai
Project Type: Research Outreach

DESCRIPTION: For many years, the reduction of energy subsidies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries was considered a near impossibility. This is because energy subsidies have been considered an unbendable form of social contract between GCC governments and their citizens, albeit an expensive and inefficient contract. In contrast, the period from 2014 to 2016 has been a period of remarkable change in GCC subsidies. As oil prices have fallen substantially since June 2014, all GCC countries have implemented subsidy reforms in one form or another.