Policy and Markets in the MENA: The Nexus between Governance and Renewable Energy Finance

AbstractFor MENA countries, transitioning to renewables primarily depends on transnational challenges of financial and infrastructural nature that cannot be tackled at national level. New renewable energy cooperation structures with the MENA were recently established in an attempt to manage interdependence problems. Drawing on a case study of renewable energy policy and markets in the MENA, this article aims at assessing the actual capacity of emerging cooperation structures to thoroughly manage the governance gap behind the transition to renewable energy technologies across the MENA. This article argues that politics have prevailed over policy, with concrete negative implications in terms of renewable energy finance towards the MENA. It concludes that far more synergic governance structures are needed to overcome the many (non-political) barriers that still hinder the take-up of renewables across the MENA