While promoting environmental integration among the GCC countries may seem to be a peripheral priority in political exchanges, it is an incentive as well as a tool for nurturing better relations among these countries. The overall aim of environmental integration is to pursue a sustainable development policy and thus achieve a better quality of life for people in different countries. For the GCC countries, this concerns common environmental policies, positions, and standards that are adopted by each member state in order to ease and facilitate economic and political integration. In fact, environmental integration in this regard aims at promoting sustainable development in order to provide a long-term vision that involves combining a dynamic economy with social cohesion and high environmental standards. As the GCC economies continue to expand and grow, environmental challenges and issues will grow as well. Thus, full environmental integration (i.e., on positions, policies, institutions, regulations, and projects) should be viewed as a mandatory step in the right direction. Otherwise, the GCC risks losing what has been achieved and even drawing back on development and quality of life
