For countries in the Arabian Peninsula, air conditioning (A/C) systems account for 65% of the energy consumption, all of which comes from fossil fuel. Given the preparation for the 2022 World Cup, which will be held in Qatar, the possibility of implementing ground source heat pump systems (GSHP) for A/C purposes is investigated. Due to its high thermal performance, GSHP is considered a viable solution for reducing the energy consumption of heating and A/C systems. However, for the GSHP system to gain popularity in cooling-dominated environments such as Qatar, financial and environmental benefits need to be demonstrated. These benefits strongly depend on local design practices and standards and on working conditions. The work presented in this paper demonstrates the energy savings by using GSHP systems in the residential buildings sector in cooling-dominated environments. To achieve this goal, a common type of residential house located in Doha, Qatar, was chosen as a case study. The cooling load of the case study and the driving energy of two different air conditioning systems were estimated. The two considered air conditioning systems are the conventional air source heat pump system (reference system) and the ground source heat pump system. Finally, economic analysis of the proposed system for construction practices in Qatar was carried out. The performed analyses show that the reduction in the prime energy demand and, consequently, the greenhouse gas emissions for the GSHP is 19% when compared to the conventional air source heat pump system. In addition, the analyses show that for the local conditions in Qatar the payback time of GSHP is 9 years. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.