Kuwait is highly vulnerable to climate change and has pledged to bring its oil and gas sector to net-zero emissions by 2050, with an economy-wide net-zero target by 2060. Oil still accounts for around 90 percent of national revenue, while renewable energy meets less than 1 percent of the country’s energy demand. Energy Modelling Lab, working with UNEP and Sustainable Development Advisors (SDA), is developing the TIMES-Kuwait model to support this transition.
TIMES-Kuwait spans five sectors, Energy, Industry, Agriculture, Land Use, and Waste, and its development combines database construction with a consensus-building process among Kuwaiti stakeholders to agree a shortlist of scenarios for analysis.
The scenario analysis is designed to inform decision-making on Kuwait’s net-zero pathway, highlighting the socioeconomic and environmental co-benefits of different routes to the target alongside their costs. Results are being published through an open-access website and accompanying Excel workbooks, so that Kuwaiti stakeholders and future analysts can continue to use and extend the model’s outputs.
TIMES-Kuwait covers five sectors, Energy, Industry, Agriculture, Land Use, and Waste, and is being developed in consultation with Kuwaiti stakeholders. EML is building the model following the TIMES framework developed under ETSAP.
The model’s database and scenario shortlist are being developed iteratively with Kuwaiti stakeholders, so that the final set of scenarios reflects national priorities and available data.
Findings are intended to inform Kuwait’s national net-zero strategy, with results published through an open-access website and Excel workbooks for use by UNEP, the Government of Kuwait and other stakeholders.
Client: UNEP
Reference: Sarah Carmen Fiedler, associate expert, UNEP
Collaborators: SDA Sustainable Development Advisors
EML team: Mikkel Bosack Simonsen, Ida Græsted Jensen
Budget: USD 64,920
Duration: August 2022 to June 2024
Model: TIMES-Kuwait