Tobias Zumbraegel completed a PhD with a focus on politics and sustainability in Qatar, Saudi and Kuwait, which was revised / expanded and published as "Political Power and Environmental Sustainability in Gulf Monarchies" in 2022 with Palgrave. The basis of the study is existing literature and 53 interviews. Given it is a doctoral dissertation at its basis, a lot of the text is basic context of the GCC (not written for an expert audience or someone already familiar with the region). The chapters are useful in tracking change, but also quite descriptive of history, such as organizations establishment and change over time. The book does develop some interesting political-economic-power layers to sustainability in the GCC. One downside is a heavily reliance on a few key sources, but this is a useful summary for someone new to the topic and/or region. A couple of notes:
"… the high number of various actors and agencies results in a loss of efficiency that is also a major explanation for countries' poor records on environmental policymaking, which became apparent in the second part of this chapter. Typically, state-owned or semi state-owned bodies do not cooperate with each other or exchange information. This has even created 'turf wars' in some instances, as the Saudi case shows. In addition to the lack of reporting, professionalism and coordination, ill-defined competencies, overlapping responsibilities and insufficient supervision have exacerbated the problem." (p. 128)
"Ultimately, the field of environmental sustainability offers insights on the highly porous and complex boundaries between what is private, public or state owned. This allows for completely new yet often highly under-researched forms of public–private assemblages that resemble neopatrimonial networks. It makes a case for how the economic context and various actors often operate as a prolonged 'arm of the state'." (p. 168)
