By Gulf Times Now PARIS / RIYADH — The International Energy Agency has published a landmark report projecting that the Gulf Cooperation Council region will account for 40% of all new global renewable energy capacity additions between now and 2030 — a figure that would have been considered wildly optimistic just five years ago and represents a fundamental reorientation of the global energy transition.
The projection is driven primarily by three megaprojects: Saudi Arabia’s NEOM renewable energy complex, which alone will generate over 4 gigawatts of clean power; the UAE’s Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the world’s largest single-site solar project; and Oman’s Green Hydrogen Programme, targeting 30 gigawatts of electrolyser capacity by 2030.
The IEA report frames the Gulf’s clean energy dominance not merely as an environmental story but as a geopolitical one: the region that built the 20th century’s fossil fuel infrastructure may be building the 21st century’s clean energy infrastructure with equal ambition and speed.