ARTICLE REVIEW on Renewable Energy Policies in the Gulf Countries Article Renewable Energy Policies in the Golf Countries

es : A Case study of the carbon-neutral Masdar City in Abu Dhabi Author - Danyel Reiche Department of political studies and public administration, America Publisher Elsevier ( www.elsevier.com/ locate/ enpol ), 2009( accepted 21september 2009) doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2009.09.028 The article is a case study about Masdar city , A planned carbor-neutral town in abu Dhabi . this article describes the key characteristics of Masdar city , analyses the drivers behind the project , the political economic forces , about main actors in investment field of this project Masdar city and seeks obstacles to creation and development as well as the policy behind the Masdar city . The author is from Department of political studies and public administration and there are some articles with a technical background about the project (Foreman 2007, Hindle 2007 , Jones 2008 , Rayner 2008 ) , however little articles exist from a political science perspective , so these are the main purpose to write this article . The main sources of information for this are the interviews with staff members of Masdar city , 2009. At the first Reiche describes the political economic background of Abu Dhabi , Explanations for the wealth of Abu Dhabi and Why the Abu Dhabi is the main focus of the regional and global public for the fact of domestic issues regulated on Emirate level. As Dubai and Abu Dhabi have much more rights than the other five Emirates (Ajman , Fujairah , Sharjah , Ras al-Khaimah and Umm) , The ruler of Abu Dhabi is the president of the United state as well as Dubai and Abu Dhabi have a veto power over matters of national importance and most of the power is still with the emirate rulers and their families as UAE is not a democratic country . Reiche also focus on the decision making process on the emirate level , power is mainly with in the large ruling families . According to the UAE constitutions, the emirate governments are considered as local governments . Abu Dhabi as the largest and most populated emirate , is the only emirate with municipalities , which supporting and coordinating municipal policies . According to the constitution of the UAE , the full legal control over oil and natural gas reserves is with the local governments. So the Emirate of Abu Dhabi is so power full in all most all directions. In key characteristics of innovation Reiche short out the points as city attract more than 1500 companies in the field of the suistainable energy technology , in june 2009 it was

decided by the International Energy Agency that Masdar city will host the head quarters of IRENA(international renewable energy agency) . The objective of the city is to become home to a population of 90,000. So these key points convertes the Masdar city from utopian concept to reality . The mission and drivers behind masdar city explained by the author as the project is the part of long term economic diversification strategy ,so the long term goal is the transition from a 20th century, carbon-based economy in to a 21st century suistainable economy a second reason is the need to meet the growing demand for energy have created a global demand , Abu Dhabi wants to benefit from this growing demand for cleantech solutions. The decision to built Masdar city was decided by the leader of the emirate. Masdar city is driven by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC) through Mubadala Development Company which having all the shareholders is the government of emirate Abu Dhabi. One of the key point of Masdar city is the Masdar institute , making it the first institution dedicated to research driven graduate programs in the region . Reiches points on obstacles to creation and development is that the concept of Masdar city is not new but the scale is unprecedented. The arab world is not more ambitious, it is very unlikely that masdar city attaracts as many companies as it wants but an investment in Masdar city is more a contribution to a museum than to earn money. Foreign investments have slowed down due to the global recession. It is also questainable whether Masdar city can attract 40000 people to live , what would attract people to move in to the city? , are there any jobs at all other than research? Some of the policies behind masdar city discuss by the author like masdar initiative announced in april 2006 by Abu Dhabi government , Masdar clean tech fund , the CCS project (carbon reduction and monetization as well as carbon capture and storage). The emirates announced for the first time a domestic renewable energy goal . according to author the motive behind domestic renewable energy goal is to point out that Masdar city is not for diversification but part of consistent policy and send the message to possible investors . As Reiche talking about contribution to policy innovation and diffusion The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia to built a suistainable campus was likely influenced by Masdar city. In this article Reiches insights and engaging writing style , as he uses examples on happen issues , case study materials , interviews and stories from a wide variety of sources to illustrate his ideas. Though it is an eminently readable article with the political exploration in a sentence . Reiche is doubtful on the concept of Masdar city whether it is right or wrong? And is it sustainable or not ? The mission behind the city would be complete or not ?