From the resource curse to sustainability

Today and tomorrow sees a 'sustainability summit' taking place in the Gulf - with several initiatives:
Sustainability Summit inaugurated - Gulf Times
KUNA : "Sustainability Summit 2017" kicks off in Doha - General - 26/11/2017
KUNA : KPTC, Gulf research firm join forces for sustainable development - Transport - 26/11/2017
Gord signs pact with Kuwaiti transport firm - Gulf Times

It does seem extraordinary, but these oil-rich states are looking to the longer-term:
Qatar's first renewable energy strategy on the anvil - Gulf Times

But they do need to act:
Want A Long-Term Play? Forget Oil - Bet On Wyoming | Seeking Alpha
Into the abyss: oil states face turmoil as climate policies bite - Climate Change News

This is called 'the paradox of plenty':
Resource curse - Wikipedia

The UK has been there too:

Some countries like Norway that already have good governance in place before resources are discovered seem to fare relatively well – but being rich first is no guarantee of success either. 

Michael Edwardes, the former chairman of ailing British car manufacturer British Leyland, spoke of this with some prescience in 1980, following the OPEC oil price shocks: “If the cabinet does not have the wit and imagination to reconcile our industrial needs with the fact of North Sea oil, they would do better to leave the bloody stuff in the ground.” 

Even if some rich countries can suffer from mineral windfalls, it is poor, badly governed countries that tend to suffer the most. The picture also varies with the global commodity price cycles: things look particularly bad during troughs in these cycles – as in the mid 1990s – and look less bad, at least on the surface, in the boom years. 
The resource curse, or the paradox of poverty from plenty | openDemocracy

See also:
The paradox of plenty | The Economist
Dutch disease - Wikipedia
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