The GCC countries display some of the highest energy consumption per capita, energy intensity per unit of GDP, and emissions per capita or per unit of GDP. Although they are collectively the world’s primary source of oil and gas, their excessive dependence on these two sources for satisfying domestic energy requirements has led to multiple expressions of preoccupation and inspired policies and institutions aiming at achieving greater diversification. Clean Energy Solutions (CES) include both measures aiming at reducing specific consumption (energy consumption per capita, or energy input per unit of GDP) and measures aiming at improving the uptake of renewable energy sources. We do not wish to include nuclear energy in the scope of the proposed workshop, because a lively debate on the political economy of the latter has already developed and led to several publications. In contrast, the field of political economy of clean energy solutions is relatively virgin. The workshop will focus on political economy aspects rather than technology. The GRM is primarily a gathering of social scientists rather than technologists. Furthermore, the technological aspects are the focus of continuous debate in the context of the EU-GCC Clean Energy Network that is in the process of being formed thanks to support from the European Commission and the GCC Secretariat. With respect to the uptake of CES, social and political variables are as important as technological ones. In fact, CES require acceptance and convergent behavior on the part of the vast majority of the population and economic actors. The distinguishing feature of CES is that they require a large number of highly decentralized decisions, while traditional energy solutions can normally be implemented on the basis of few, large-scale investment decisions – in fact they mostly display significant scale economies, favoring large-scale over small-scale solutions.