Decoupling of Water Production and Electricity Generation from GDP and Population in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries

Abstract

Although the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are in an arid region with limited water resources, the per capita water and electricity consumptions are high, at 560 L/capita/day and 7000–18,000 kWh/year, respectively. Although macroscale parameters (e.g., GDP and population) have been assumed to be correlated with water and electricity demand, this study aims to verify whether this assumption still holds true. As opposed to the previous literature, this study reveals that, although water production and electricity generation had been correlated with GDP and population for years, they have been decoupled from these macroscale parameters since 2015. Such decoupling can be explained by the three phases of economic development. In the initial stage, GDP and population growth promoted rapid increases in water and electricity demands, which came down in the second stage as the consumers became satisfied with water and electricity supplies. In the third stage, the water and electricity demands were decoupled from GDP and population due to demand-management policies for environmental protection and cost saving, combined with consumers’ efforts, such as water-saving faucets and energy efficiency in homes, which indicates that microscale parameters have become more influential on water and electricity demands than macroscale parameters.