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The Green Influence: Exploring the Impact of Political Systems on Renewable Energy Transition in Oil Countries
Di Bagno, Mariarosaria
Di Bagno, Mariarosaria
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Abstract
This thesis explores the following question: How do political systems in oil-rich countriesaffect the adoption of environmental sustainability practices aligned with the UN SustainableDevelopment Goals? Existing research suggests that democratic countries better adoptsustainable environmental policies. Nevertheless, some oil-authoritarian countries can alsoimplement clean energy practices. This thesis reaches this conclusion following different steps.First, the analytical framework, establishing the research structure, explores the economicequation of the production function, the clean democracy hypothesis, the economic model of theenvironmental Kuznets curve, and the ideology of eco-authoritarianism. Then, while finding apositive correlation between democracy and environmental performance, the methodologysection that tests these theories also shows the existence of environmental initiatives in someauthoritarian oil-dependent countries: the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. This isdemonstrated using a quantitative analysis of environmental performance, democracy indexscores, oil rent percentage, and GDP per capita across 156 countries and a qualitativeexamination of policy initiatives in these three Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Thesefindings encourage the international community to reconsider biases on authoritarian richcountries dependent on oil revenues and their possibility to adopt environmentally sustainablepolicies. Also, this research fills a significant gap in the literature by linking different theories toassess how political systems shape environmental initiatives in oil-rich countries. Until now,research looking at different spectrums, such as the relationship between political systems and oilor environment and oil, existed. Thus, linking these three aspects, this thesis enriches theacademic research on political economy and environmental policy, offering insights for futureassessments on oil, political systems, and their effectiveness on environmental initiatives.
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Thesis (B.A. in International Affairs, Minor in Legal Studies)--John Cabot University, Spring 2024.
Date
2024
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Keywords
Renewable energy sources, Environmental aspects, Renewable energy sources, Government policy
Citation
Di Bagno, Mariarosaria. "The Green Influence: Exploring the Impact of Political Systems on Renewable Energy Transition in Oil Countries". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2024.