As a party to the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit the global average temperature rise to below 2 degrees and keep it as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius, Saudi Arabia has submitted its nationally determined contribution (NDC). NDCs are essentially climate action plans that encompass a party’s climate target and the initiatives or policies that it plans to implement to achieve that target.
Research LeadAbdulelah is a research lead at KAPSARC and an economist with expertise in various fields, including macroeconomics, energy, international trade…Abdulelah is a research lead at KAPSARC and an economist with expertise in various fields, including macroeconomics, energy, international trade and investment flows, financial development and public policy. He is currently leading the application of a behavioral economics project for energy policymaking in Saudi Arabia, utilizing econometric modeling and counterfactual analysis.
Abdulelah's publications have been featured in several peer-reviewed journals. In 2020, during the Saudi G20 presidency, he was a member, co-author, and task force coordinator for the Trade, Investment, and Growth Taskforce for Think20 (T20), an official Engagement Group of the G20.
Before joining KAPSARC, Abdulelah worked as an economic consultant, providing policy analyses, modeling, and forecasting the impacts of public spending on social and economic indicators.
Abdulelah obtained a master's degree in applied economics and a bachelor's degree with honors in banking and financial economics. He received the King Abdullah scholarship and is a member of the Saudi Economic Association and the Saudi Association for Energy Economics.
Expertise
Macroeconomics
Economic Growth
International Trade and Investment
Financial Development
Energy Demand and Public Policy
Econometrics
Energy Transition and its impact on the global economy
Fellow IIAnwar is an energy and environmental economist with an engineering background and over a decade of research and advisory experience…Anwar is an energy and environmental economist with an engineering background and over a decade of research and advisory experience around the areas of energy demand, greenhouse gas emissions, energy price reform, and carbon pricing. He currently leads multiple cross-functional teams on key projects tackling these areas, with a proven track record of publishing high-impact papers, providing consulting services to policymakers, and building the capabilities of talent within the organization. Anwar’s research has been published in leading energy and environmental journals and has been picked up by leading news media. Anwar also has experience transforming organizations, having been a member of task forces responsible for refreshing organizational strategy and building human capital.
Anwar is currently wrapping up a Ph.D. from UCL in Sustainable Resources (sub-specialization in Economics). He holds an M.Sc. from KAUST in Electrical Engineering and a B.Eng. from the University of Liverpool in Electronics and Communication Engineering.
Expertise
Energy price reform; Energy demand; Measuring GHG emissions; Carbon pricing; Carbon markets
Visiting ResearcherLester C. Hunt is a part-time Professor of Economics at the University of Portsmouth and a KAPSARC Visiting Researcher. Lester…Lester C. Hunt is a part-time Professor of Economics at the University of Portsmouth and a KAPSARC Visiting Researcher.
Lester previously worked at the Universities of Essex (1979-1980), Swansea (1980-1985 and 1987-1989), Surrey (1989-1991 and 1999-2017), and Portsmouth (1994-1998, and 2017 onwards). At Surrey he was Head of Economics (1999-2003) and Director of SEEC (2003-2015). At Portsmouth he was Head of Economics (1996 -1998) and Head of Economics and Finance (2017-2021).
In addition to working in higher education, Lester was an Economic Adviser in the forecasting division of HM Treasury (1985-1987), an Energy Analyst/Economist at Midlands Electricity (1991-1994) and a Senior Research Fellow at KAPSARC (2015-2017).
Lester holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Economics with Econometrics from Loughborough University, an MA in Economics from the University of Essex, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Surrey. He has been an Editor of The Energy Journal since 2006.
Research FellowJeyhun is a research fellow at KAPSARC. He received his B.A. and M.S. from Azerbaijan State University (now Baku State…Jeyhun is a research fellow at KAPSARC. He received his B.A. and M.S. from Azerbaijan State University (now Baku State University) in mathematics. Jeyhun holds a Ph.D. in applied mathematics and a D.S. in econometrics. Before joining KAPSARC in September 2017, Jeyhun was an associate professor at the Department of Statistics and Econometrics at Azerbaijan State University, and the Department of Economics at Qafqaz University, where he taught econometrics, statistics, and mathematical economics. His other roles have included director of the Research Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities, and head of the Center for Socio-Economic Research. Jeyhun was a postdoctoral researcher at Indiana University Bloomington, United States (U.S.). He has also been a visiting researcher at several institutions, including the Center for Econometric Research, Sungyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea; Vistula University, Warsaw, Poland; the University of North Texas, and the University of South Texas, both in the U.S.
Jeyhun’s research is focused on applied time series econometrics, the economics of energy, the environment and sustainable development. He has authored over 40 scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals and is an editorial board member of the International Journal of Advanced Multidisciplinary Research and Review, the Journal of Management, Economics and Industrial Organization, and the Journal of Socio-Economic Studies, and a member of the International Association for Energy Economics.
