Al-Mubarak, Imtenan

Biography

Imtenan Al-Mubarak is a Project Planning and Management director. She was previously a research fellow at KAPSARC, focusing on policy research with an emphasis on data science and machine learning. Before joining KAPSARC, Imtenan worked at several companies in Chicago, and at Electronia in Dammam and Saudi Aramco in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. She holds a master’s degree with distinction from DePaul University, Chicago, for which she was awarded the Golden Key International Honor. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a member of several professional organizations. She is a Future Energy Leader at the World Energy Council in London and a board member at a non-profit organization in San Francisco. She also holds a patent in the United States (issued November 8, 2016).

Publications

See all Imtenan’s publications
  • Book/book chapter
  • Discussion papers
  • KAPSARC journal article
  • External journal article
The Economics of Renewable Energy in the Gulf

The Economics of Renewable Energy in the Gulf

The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) has been at the epicenter of global energy markets because of its substantial endowment of hydrocarbons. Yet countries in the region have also stated their intent to be global leaders in renewable energy. This collection explores the drivers for the widespread adoption of renewable energy around the GCC, the need for renewable energy and the policy-economic factors that can create success. https://www.routledge.com/The-Economics-of-Renewable-Energy-in-the-Gulf-1st-Edition/Akhonbay/p/book/9781138351905 Contributors: Ghada Abdulla, Hisham Akhonbay, Abdullah Al-Badi, Walid Ali, Odeh Al-Jayyousi, Imtenan Al-Mubarak, Maha Alsabbagh, Omar Al-Ubaydli, Moiz Bohra, Sylvain Cote, Nasreddine El-Dehaibi, Amro Elshurafa, Bassam Fattouh, Stephen Gitonga, Steve Griffiths, Marwan Khraisheh, Walid Matar, Daniah Orkoubi, Rahmatallah Poudineh, Shreekar Pradhan, Antonio Sanfilippo, Anupama Sen, Marilyn Smith, David Wogan, Lama Yaseen, Karen Young.    

17th October 2018
Political Feasibility of Enhancing the Russian Emissions Reduction Target Under the Paris Agreement

Political Feasibility of Enhancing the Russian Emissions Reduction Target Under the Paris Agreement

It is widely recognized that the commitments set out in the Paris Agreement fall short of achieving the 2 degrees Celsius global warming target, agreed as the central goal of the agreement and its parties. Given this, KAPSARC has set out to explore the political feasibility of enhancing nationally determined contributions by utilizing the KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis (KTAB).

13th November 2019
Can Japanese Nuclear Power Be Restarted Sooner? A Simulation of Alternative Scenarios

Can Japanese Nuclear Power Be Restarted Sooner? A Simulation of Alternative Scenarios

This study assesses whether there are politically plausible paths to more quickly gain support for restarting Japanese nuclear power plants and considers alternative scenarios. It builds on the 2018 KAPSARC discussion paper, “The Policymaking Process to Restart Japanese Nuclear Power,” which detailed a baseline scenario for the political feasibility of restarting Japanese nuclear power plants.

27th October 2019
The Policymaking Process to Restart Japanese Nuclear Power Plants

The Policymaking Process to Restart Japanese Nuclear Power Plants

The Japanese government’s decision to continue restarting nuclear power is shaped by a combination of domestic political concerns, energy security challenges, and its ability to meet climate change commitments and targets. Nuclear power plants have started to come back online, but there is still a question regarding the scope and timing for restarting the remaining reactors. In this paper, we apply a model of collective decision-making processes (CDMPs) to assess the political will for restarting nuclear power plants in Japan. We find that: There is growing political will among Japanese stakeholders to restart nuclear reactors for power generation. Over the next several years, the current political trajectory indicates political acceptance of nuclear power among municipal and prefecture political leaders, who are currently the most significant and consequential opponents to nuclear power. Local governments have the ability to block the restart of nuclear power plants. The process of regaining national support for nuclear power in Japan is expected to take several years of domestic political debate. The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) appears to be a credible and effective voice in building political acceptance of restarting nuclear power plants, given enough time. However, it is important that the NRA maintains its role as an unbiased and fact-based entity, to maintain its credibility with opponents to nuclear power. Despite the turbulence in Japanese politics in 2017, the trend of slowly growing political will in favor of nuclear power appears to be largely unchanged.

31st December 2018
Assessment of the Political Feasibility of Developing a GCC Power Market

Assessment of the Political Feasibility of Developing a GCC Power Market

Countries in the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, commonly known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), established a regional power grid to support member countries’ high voltage networks in 2001 but, to date, the system has remained underutilized. The intended purpose of the grid was to provide backup electricity during emergencies caused by power system outages, especially during the summer, and to share spinning reserves, optimize capital investments in electricity and reduce fuel costs. The grid has been fully operational since 2011 and has satisfied its intended purpose. However, GCC member states have largely failed to take advantage of options associated with the grid to trade electricity. This paper uses the KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis platform, a model of collective decision-making processes developed at KAPSARC, to examine the political feasibility of expanding the utilization of the GCC grid to include trading electricity.

4th October 2018
The Political Feasibility of Policy Options for the UAE’s Energy Transition

The Political Feasibility of Policy Options for the UAE’s Energy Transition

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has said it wishes to transition toward a less carbon-intensive energy system, both as part of its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and as one of a number of investments in ‘green’ research and development, technology and power generation. However, given the complexity of the UAE political system, which requires consensus among seven relatively sovereign and independent emirates, as well as commercial and financial interests, it is not immediately clear which policy instruments that might drive the UAE energy transition will prove acceptable and politically plausible. Here, we apply the KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis (KTAB) platform, a model of collective decision-making processes (CDMPs), to assess the political will to agree to and to implement an array of different policy alternatives within the current UAE context.

10th October 2017
Support for a Carbon Tax in China: A Collective Decision-Making Process Simulation Using the KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis

Support for a Carbon Tax in China: A Collective Decision-Making Process Simulation Using the KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis

China, the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, is taking steps to combat the effects of climate change on its environment. The path it takes to mitigate the effects of pollution will have a significant impact on the global carbon reduction agenda. In this study, we focus on the political feasibility of implementing a carbon tax in China within the next five years. We do this using the KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis (KTAB) platform, a model of collective decision-making processes (CDMPs) developed at KAPSARC to assess the expected support in China for, and reactions to, this potential policy choice.

1st May 2017
Multidimensional Bargaining Using KTAB

Multidimensional Bargaining Using KTAB

This paper (Multidimensional KTAB) is a technical discussion paper designed as a follow on to An Introduction to the KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis using one-dimensional spatial models (Unidimensional KTAB). It extends the original framework of KTAB to explain the analysis described in the recently released KAPSARC discussion paper Reforming the Role of State-Owned Enterprise in China’s Energy Sector: An Analysis of Collective DecisionMaking Processes Using the KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis (Chinese SOE Reform).

24th December 2015
Reforming the Role of State-Owned Enterprise in China’s Energy Sector: An Analysis of Collective Decision-Making Processes Using the KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis (KTAB)

Reforming the Role of State-Owned Enterprise in China’s Energy Sector: An Analysis of Collective Decision-Making Processes Using the KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis (KTAB)

What are the prospects for reform of the Chinese energy sector? This question is the subject of much debate both inside and outside China. Since coming to power in November 2012, China’s new government has issued a series of statements on reform, clearly an important part of the country’s continuing ‘great revival’. Despite this, some experts have been unconvinced by the pace of economic reform. What reform means for the energy sector is even less clear. There are competing views on how, and to what extent, the energy sector and energy policy will be reformed, but they all share various potential biases resulting from incomplete data and “not knowing what we don’t know”.

6th July 2015
An Introduction to the KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis (KTAB)

An Introduction to the KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis (KTAB)

The KAPSARC Toolkit for Behavioral Analysis (KTAB) is freely available, state-of-the-art software that has been designed to enable the rigorous and systematic analysis of collective decision-making processes (CDMPs). KTAB is being designed with three types of users in mind. The program code is available directly for computer programmers. Power users will be able to construct their own specific models based on the existing structure, and applied users will be able to access pre-built models through a simple graphical user interface. Collective decision-making processes are those in which a group of individual actors interact to arrive at a single decision. Common examples include the deliberations of corporate boards. These processes have usually been studied in a purely qualitative fashion, but there is a growing body of evidence which suggests that computer models can deliver additional insights. KTAB is being designed to unlock these additional insights for a broader range of analysts, but its release is also hoped to extend the awareness of computer models as a route to the investigation of CDMPs, and to prompt a wider acceptance and uptake of a quantitative approach to such analyses.

7th May 2015

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