Demand side management opportunities, framework, and implications for sustainable development in resource-rich countries: Case study Qatar

Abstract

Over the last decades, global consumption of energy and environmental resources have been rapidly increasing due to advances in the production and transportation of goods, as well as reduced barriers to global trade markets. This trend raised sustainable consumption issues because of inefficient and wasteful use of resources, especially in resource-rich countries with high purchasing power and subsidized tariffs offered to residents. It is also well-known that resources abundance tends to lower financial development and limit productivity growth and social development. On the other hand, there is a growing acceptance that supply-side policies need to be complemented by demand-side management to support sustainable cleaner production and remedy aforementioned adverse impacts. In this study, we present the results of an investigation on demand-side management (DSM) opportunities and a framework developed for Qatar as a representative of an emerging resource-rich countries and discuss implications for cleaner production.The rationale behind is that Qatar is a commodity-dependent developing country, who, during the last five years, has experienced a population growth of 35%, and an increase in electricity and water demand of 46% and 35%, respectively. Similarly, during the same period, the national vehicle fleet has grown by more than twofold. These figures have ranked Qatar at the top of the per-capita energy, carbon, and water consumption list in the world and increased environmental vulnerability and reduced climate resilience. To that end, the objectives of this study are to: (1) construct a DSM framework tailored to the needs of resource-rich country like Qatar from economic, social, environmental, and technical aspects;(2) present, analyze, and discuss the results of a survey that reveals the perceptions, attitudes, and responses of local residents towards the applicability of DSM policies; and (3) discuss methods and solutions to achieve cleaner energy consumption. The conducted survey covered electricity, water, and transportation sectors and showed that residents have low awareness about their consumption habits, but they have high willingness to reduce their consumption levels. In the last section, we present the survey results and discussions as a reference for policy-makers to promote the most promising DSM options in Qatar. To the best of authors' knowledge, this is the first survey-based study conducted in the Gulf Cooperation Council region where a significant portion of world's oil and natural gas resources are extracted. Therefore, the results could provide insights to other resource-rich countries with similar characteristics to devise more efficient policies for promoting welfare-enhancing and sustainable consumption behavior.

The role of natural resources abundance and dependence in achieving environmental sustainability: Evidence from resource‐based economies

“…It is, however, interesting to note that the economic development process of the sub‐region based on the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources combined with the increasing demand of natural resources from many emerging countries have reawakened the debate about the predominant role played by natural resource exports and consumption in the attainment of the SDGs in resource‐rich countries (M. Islam & Managi, 2019; Merino‐Saum, Baldi, Gunderson, & Oberle, 2018; Sahin, Bayram, & Koc, 2019; Sinha & Sengupta, 2019).…”

Proposal for a new layer for energy cloud management: The regulatory layer

“…Thus, to assist in visualizing these regulatory weaknesses, the regulatory suggestions were classified into technical, economic, and environmental factors, as shown in Table 3. The technical, economic, and environmental factors considered for the distribution of regulations were based on the techniques and concepts of Cleaner Production, which aims to avoid waste of resource generation, while increasing efficiency in several sectors, including electricity, water, and transportation 91 . In this way, it can be considered that it is important to establish the regulatory and legislative aspects of EC in a way that the technical, economic, and environmental factors are balanced.…”

Investigating a Hampered NRE Utilization in Kaltim’s Energy System: Is there an Energy Policy with a Syndrome of the Energy-abundant Area?

“…Thus, to avoid more detrimental effects of energywasteful behavior, a robust energy policy is crucial to develop a more sustainable energy system. The policy includes demand-side management (Sahin et al, 2019), electricity sector reforms (Poudineh et al, 2020;Setyawan, 2014), and transition into NRE development (Oniemola, 2016). The heavy reliance only on the vast availability of energy reserve should be ended and switched into energy policy reformation.…”

“…Thus, there is an indication that the syndrome leads to the fossilbased energy policy. Here, a syndrome refers to a mindset of feeling secure due to the abundance of energy that leads to the wasteful behavior in energy consumption (Friedrichs & Inderwildi, 2013;Nielsen et al, 2018) or the unwillingness to transform or to do the transition, to switch the non-renewable fossil with the renewable NRE (Oniemola, 2016;Sahin et al, 2019). The mindset is believed to influence policy-makers to make which type of energy policy, i.e., NRE-based energy policy or fossil-based energy policy.…”