The climate change policy in Jordan is in the making, despite the fact that most sectors have already issued their specialized strategies on how to adapt to climate change, which are more detailed than the policy itself. Nevertheless, the need to organize the work within one framework is becoming more urgent under the current political, economic, and environmental changes.
Countries participating in the UN Climate Change Conference are discussing sensitive issues that affect the life of billions. What caught my attention were the concept of “green energy” and the pivotal role of governments in encouraging the private-sector-supported shift toward clean energy technologies.
A Flash on the Current Energy Reality in Jordan
Jordan imports 96% of its energy, disbursing for that matter 25% of its GNP. While the annual increase on electricity demand ranges from 5-7%, reducing the energy bill continues to be a constant source of worry for the public budget. Therefore, moving towards more sustainable energy resources is now more than ever a pressing necessity. When setting the grounds for a green economy, one of the fundamentals is to ensure sustainable energy supply for everybody.
The government prepared a list of the 21 best projects for reducing climate change impacts in Jordan. Priority was given to projects for improving energy consumption effectiveness, because such projects are quick to implement, and have the lowest cost on the local level. In the past few years, efforts were driven to preparing the Jordanian market for ‘reduction projects’ through a World Bank funded project implemented by the Ministry of Environment.
Given this uneasy energy reality, a group of youth activists issued a petition named “Wake Up Call”, calling on the Jordanian government to exploit renewable energy resources.
A More Diverse Energy Mix
It was a surprise to me to read that investments in renewable energy around the world reached a record number in 2011 (US$257 billion). Sadly, the share of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region was only US$5.5 billion, and that is despite the abundance in renewable energy resources.
Jordan has immense renewable energy resources. The average wind speed in some areas reaches 5-7 m/s. As for the solar energy, Jordan lies within the “sunbelt” region where both sunlight and temperature can be utilized. It’s high time to increase the renewable energy usage.
To accomplish a rise in the sector of renewable energy, some policy reforms should be introduced, as well as better investments in research. One pivotal step is to end governmental monopoly over the energy market, and at the same time creating investment opportunities by developing effective funding programs.
Shifting towards green energy not only contributes to development and independence in energy production and accessibility to affordable energy services but also creates “green job opportunities”.
It’s worth mentioning that Jordan is in the process of building a nuclear power plant for electricity generation. Jordan’s ability to run and manage a nuclear power plant is highly disputed. The government’s approach towards nuclear investments should be reconsidered, because such a project might be a real existential danger when placed in an area poor in research, expertise, and risk management systems. One more factor that shouldn’t be forgotten is the global restrictions on nuclear power. Jordan, as many other countries, ought to rely on global market for nuclear fuel supply regardless to its uranium spare supplies.
To conclude, not every extreme and severe climate circumstance is evidence of climate change; nevertheless, one can feel and see the negative impacts in various main sectors in Jordan. I will always wonder if Jordan will ever change its image as a developing country highly vulnerable to crises resulting from oil shortages. Why do some of us want to “dig out” the buried metals, while the earth surface is overflowing with other renewable resources?