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#Designing a crosscutting multi-sectoral,#cost-effective #strategies & #policies to combat & Manage #climatechange impacts &risks in #Jordan


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Summary

Jordan is known to be one of the top five driest countries in the world.  The population has recently grown from about 5.87 million in 2008 to almost more than 10 million today.

According to the latest studies, It can be said that climate change scenarios estimate a general increase in temperature of less than 2°C in Jordan. In summary higher temperatures and lower precipitation, droughts and Shift in rainy season are expected as a result of climate change.

Jordan’s “Water for Life” strategy 2008–2022 highlights the key elements for climate change adaptation in the water sector are:

  •  Desalination of brackish water and of seawater,
  • Rainwater harvesting and grey-water use,
  • Implementing a public awareness program showing depletion of groundwater and its potential consequences,
  • Inform farmers of the current problems with irrigation,
  • Enforce ground-water basin extraction limits and close illegal wells,
  • Adopt and enforce water-efficient building and plumbing codes,
  • Accelerate rehabilitation of municipal water delivery systems to reduce losses. 

 

Another important sector is the agricultural sector with the following as strategies to adapt:

  • Use of non-conventional water resources
  • Implementation of water harvesting projects and conservation of water resources.
  • Developing and directing agricultural research towards efficient irrigation programs and types resistant to drought 
  • Encourage protected crops technologies instead of open cropping techniques.
  • Follow-up on the procedures for the establishment of an agricultural risk management fund

 

In 2010, Jordanian cabinet passed the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Law Number 3. Article 3 of the law states that the main goal is  to increase energy efficiency, so as to improve the national energy security, attract the investment and to protect the environment.  Strategies in energy sector include:

  • Exemption of energy-efficient equipment and devices from tax. 
  • Promotion of the replacement of old vehicles with modern ones.
  • Municipal waste exploitation for electrical power generation, with a capacity of about 20 to 30 MW.

Another major contributor to GHG emissions is the transport sector.

Studies shows that vehicle exhaust is one of the most important sources of pollution in Jordan. Recent Cabinet of Ministers resolution to stop imports of cars older than five years of age is helping to get rid of old vehicles. In addition, Jordanians who wish to exchange their old car with a new hybrid one will benefit from customs exemptions.

If we speak of the industrial sector, we notice that the government has already set some measure to adapt to climate change impacts which are:

• Support the adoption of Best Available Technology (BAT) & Best Environmental Practices (BEP),

  • Update regulations to encourage industrial investment,
  • Support and encourage cooperation between the private and public sectors,
  • Establish a national strategy to improve the exportation of local products to the international market.

 


Which proposals are included in your plan and how do they fit together?

-       The first & most important plan that is a base for the implementation of all other plans  and is considered as a major cross-cutting issue is Education, awareness raising and training that is central to the success of any environmental program for capacity building. Any education and training program for climate change should be based on the national priorities.

Knowledge is like light. Weightless and intangible, it can easily travel the world, enlightening the lives of people everywhere. Yet billions still live in the darkness of poverty- unnecessarily." (World Development Report 1999).

-       The first Plan is from the (Energy Supply Contest in 2014):  Path To Zero - Energy Supply

I believe that this plan is very much aligned with the Jordanian Energy Strategy.

In 2010, Jordanian cabinet passed the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Law Number 3, for the year 2010. Article three of the law states that the main goal is to increase the share of the renewable energy in the national energy mix and to increase energy efficiency, so as to improve the national energy security, attract the investment and to protect the environment (JUST 2010). And its also known that implementing measures related to Energy Efficiency, is much cheaper than implementing other measure. Moreover this plan does also work on improving people’s attitudes & behaviors as well as it build a new culture among residents to monitor,record  & save in their daily energy consumptions. And as once said   “we’ve got a huge source of alternative energy all around us.  It’s called conservation, and it’s the lowest cost new source of energy we have at hand.”-- Chevron Corp. advertisement

The Second Plan is from the (Transportation sector Contest in 2014): Pledge To Drive Electric Vehicles and Install Electric Vehicle Charging ...

According to the 2009 Jordan State of the Environment Report (Ministry of Environment 2009), vehicle exhaust is one of the most important sources of pollution in Jordan. T

Moving sources of air pollution consist of cars and other vehicles in Jordan, the number of which has grown rapidly in the past decade.  The number of cars operated by benzene grew six-fold during the period from 1981 to 2006, while cars operated by diesel grew ten-fold during the same period. The fuel combusted by the transportation sector increased rapidly during the period from 1996 to 2006, resulting in a major increase of air pollutants to the surrounding environment (Ministry of Environment 2009).

According to the GHG inventory for the year 2006 the contribution of the Transportation sector is 4706 Gg CO2 eq. (16.4%) of the Total emitted GHG in Jordan for that year.

-       If we talk about the Industrial sector we find that it contributes to around 2550Gg CO2 eq.), 8.9%; . For this sector we propose to implement the Cleaner Production (CP) concept. www.cp.org.jo

CP is the continuous application of an integrated preventive environmental strategy applied to processes, products and services to increase efficiency and reduce risks to humans and the environment. Its core element is prevention vs. clean-up or end-of-pipe solutions to environmental problems. Resources should be used efficiently thus reducing environmental pollution and improving health and safety. Economic profitability together with environmental improvement is the aim. CP typically includes measures such as “good housekeeping”, process modifications, eco-design of products and cleaner technologies.

The CP term include the three basic technical components of increasing material efficiency to produce more products, less waste and less pollutant, a reduction of toxicity of materials used and the redesign of products to reduce the environmental impact over the entire life cycle of products.

In general the method of an IPA ( In Plant Assessment) follows the following steps:

1.     Pre-assessment (forming of the CP-team, definition of the audit focuses description of the company and the processes, construction of the process flow diagram).

2.     Material and Energy balance (determination and accounting of material in- and outputs).

3.     Synthesis (examination of the processes on CP measures (options) and estimation of the economic and environmental benefits thereof as well as investigation of technical and organizational advantages).

4.     Implementation of the options by the company and examination of the benefits achieved.

Programme activities:

Quick Scan and CP potentials

*        Good Housekeeping, Eco-mapping and

*        Material Flow Analysis

*        Energy efficiency

*        CP options identification

*        Technical and financial evaluation

*        Performance Indicators, Benchmarking

*        and Monitoring

*        CP Management Systems

*        Financing Cleaner Technologies

 

 

CP is not simply a question of changing equipment, it is a matter of changing attitudes and behaviour in doing business, applying know-how and improving production processes as well as the product itself. CP is a proactive approach, "anticipate and prevent philosophy". Prevention is always better than cure.

For The Building Sector: Improve Building Energy Performance: Green Job Skills Training

For the land use & Agriculture we propose to adopt the technique of Permaculture: (Building Resilient Food Security Systems through Extending Permaculture Design and Technologies in The Jordan Valley and Beyond)

http://www.permaculturearabia.org

http://permacultureglobal.org/projects/1428-permaculture-research-institute-of-jordan

 

-      This approach  depends on the application of specific agricultural patterns and practices that aim for sustainable use of soil, water, plants and animals by design. It is an integrated system for the environmental management of agricultural process, natural resources, local community and environment in one design system package.

Permaculture is a branch of ecological design, ecological engineering, environmental design, construction and Integrated Water Resources Management that develops sustainable architecture, regenerative and self-maintained habitat and agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems. The word permaculture originally referred to "permanent agriculture" but was expanded to stand also for "permanent culture," as it was seen that social aspects were integral to a truly sustainable system.

Permaculture design emphasizes patterns of landscape, function, and species assemblies. It determines where these elements should be placed so they can provide maximum benefit to the local environment. The central concept of permaculture is maximizing useful connections between components and synergy of the final design. The focus of permaculture, therefore, is not on each separate element, but rather on the relationships created among elements by the way they are placed together; the whole becoming greater than the sum of its parts.

 

-     For the Waste Management Sector: In the year 2006, GHG emissions from the waste sector totaled 3045Gg CO2 eq. at 10.6% of Jordan’s total GHG

emissions. Most of the emissions originated from disposal of domestic solid waste which accounted for 98.6 % (3003Gg CO2 eq) of the total waste emissions, while wastewater handling accounted for 1.4 % (42Gg CO2 eq) of the total waste emissions.

The suggested Plan is GHG Rescue; Buying Waste from Households and selling it to Recycle Compa...

This in our opinion is an excellent plan which will reduce the stress on the landfills, & cut the garbage transportation costs. And create great incentive for people to segregate their domestic waste at home.

Adaptation (https://www.adaptation-fund.org/projects-programmes/endorsed-concepts/)

Using ICT as an enabling tool for more effective climate change adaptation and development programmes: Setting Up Of An Early Warning System For Drought For Farmers Use, following are the main activities of the project:

ü  Develop a mobile application for early warning system to reflect information of the web portal. The mobile application will enable the user (any of the three types) access the Databank of information using its interface, in addition to a way to enquiry about irrigation times, types and amounts, latest news, climate change actions and behaviors, …etc.

 

ü    Develop a web Portal for the management of all related information to climate change this web portal will have three main user types, a normal guest, a registered user and an administrator user, each one of the users will have a certain privilege and will be granted access to the roles in the application as per his job.

ü  Implement a two way SMS Service for early warning system, which will enable the farmer to send an enquiry SMS containing certain facts about the area of enquiry and accordingly the SMS system will find the suitable answer to it as per the standard studies and information and reply back to him with the answer.

ü  Develop an Irrigation Management Information System (IMIS) which serves as climate change early warning System.

The main objective of this project is to: create an automated system that collects data from the data acquisition weather stations, sends it to the servers, then imports that data into a database making it available for analysis.  This system provides an online functionality to find up-to-date source of information related to the data collected for all concerned stakeholders. The system also provides up-to-date statistical information to researchers and decision makers.

The project will also help initiate and sustain a technology transfer program concerning the issues of when to irrigate and how much irrigation water on-farm level to maximize water use efficiency

 

 


Explanation of the emissions scenario calculated in the Impact tab

In the year 2006, Jordan contributed about 28717gigagrams (Gg) or 28.72 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2 equivalent (CO2 eq.) of GHGs to the atmosphere. A sectoral breakdown of Jordan’s total emissions of GHGs is as follows:

• Energy (20938Gg CO2eq), 72.9%;

• Industrial processes (about 2550Gg CO2 eq.), 8.9%;

• Agriculture (1318Gg CO2 eq.), 4.6%;

• Waste (3045Gg CO2 eq.), 10.6%, and

• LULUCF(866Gg CO2 eq.), 3.0 %

In the energy sector, the contribution of the subsectors to national GHG inventory was:

• Energy industries 7916 Gg CO2 eq (27.6%)

• Transport 4706 Gg CO2 eq. (16.4%)

• Other sectors (Commercial, residential and

agricultural) 2883 Gg CO2 eq. (10%)

• Others 2715 Gg CO2 eq. (9.5%)

• Manufacturing industries 2675 Gg CO2 eq. (9.3%)

On a per sub-sector basis, the largest contributor to emissions in the energy sector is the energy industries subsector, which accounted for 37.9% of energy emissions, followed by the transport sector which contributed to 22.5% of the energy emissions.

Emissions from the manufacturing industries and construction sub-sector include the combustion of fossil fuels for generation of electricity (autogeneration) and for heat production.

Transport is a major sub-sector contributing to GHG emissions from fuel combustion for the passenger and freight. The following subcategories were included:

• Domestic aviation;

• Road transport;

• Rail transport;

• National Navigation; and

• Pipeline transport.

Among all energy sub-sectors, transport was the largest

contributor to the emissions of N2O, NOx, CO and NMOVCs.

In the year 2006, GHG emissions from the waste sector totaled 3,045Gg CO2eq. at 10.6% of Jordan’s total GHG emissions. Most of the emissions were from disposal of domestic solid waste, which accounted for 98.6% (3,003Gg CO2eq) of the total GHG emissions,

The inventory of methane emissions from solid waste disposal sites of year 2006 showed an increase of about 15% compared to the SNC of 2000 which correlates with a similar rate of population increase.


What are the plan’s key benefits?

  In January 2013 a milestone was achieved in Jordan with the launch and adoption of the first national policy on climate change in the country and in the region.

Jordan’s 2007-2020 strategy for its energy sector included recommendations on energy conservation, such as grant exemptions for import of energy-saving vehicles, exemption from sales tax for solar water heaters, and the implementation of building code regulations that conserve energy. 

Other outcomes comes from adopting permaculture and agro-ecological techniques for Land use, it generates a stable future adapted and profitable investment. It uses biologically fixed nitrogen, It also help maximize soil Health in particularly organic matter levels.

Economic benefits include minimizing the use of external inputs such as fertilizers, fossil fuels, and biocides.The activities will demonstrate the potential for improving the livelihood and living conditions of humans in the Jordan Valley.

 

 


What are the plan’s costs?

According to the NEEDS study published in Jordan in 2010, both mitigation and adaptation measures in Jordan will require substantial financial resources. An initial estimation, until the year 2020, shows that about 3.5 billion US$ will be needed for mitigation and a minimum of 1.5 billion US$ will be needed for adaptation in Jordan.

In total, investment in environmental conservation could generate an estimated 50,000 jobs, and over JD 1.3 billion in revenues over a period of 10 years.

The estimated investment needed for energy conservation is around 152 million USD.

If we speak about a small scale Resilient Food Security Systems which implement  Permaculture Design and Technologies in The Jordan Valley and Beyond, we estimates that we will need around 1 million US$.

Jordan does not have a national policy to encourage green investment in particular. Future financing for mitigation and adaptation can be attracted from different sources, 


What are the key challenges to enacting this plan?

v  lacke of a sustainable system to collect, process, archive, monitor and report on the sources of GHG emissions and their sinks.

v Lack of appropriate funding for technology transfer and research;

v Lack of incentives and high taxation and customs on modern technology;

v Routine government procedures and lack of specialized staff in the public sector;

v  Insufficient information and training courses allocated ;

v  Limited expertise in modern technology maintenance and spare parts availability, and special needs for foreign experts to transfer knowledge and experience of the new technologies.

v  Neglecting the green economy potential will add to the annual cost of environmental degradation estimated by the World Bank in 2008 to be over 2% of the GDP.

v  Lack of national drivers for innovations and lack of involvement of the private sector;

v  Large influxes of refugees are expected to increase the stress on Natural resources 

Gender inequalities cross with climate risks and vulnerabilities


Timeline

One of the key Initiatives to start with in Jordan:

v  Spreading awareness on climate change impacts & adaptation and mitigation especially poor remote communities 

v  (2015- 2017): Create a unit within an influential “convening” government entity to provide political leadership on green economy issues;

v (2015-2020): Improve the collection of statistics in relation to the green economy.

v (2015- 2018) :Establish a platform for dialogue between the public and private sector (including the financial sector);

v 2015- 2020): Reduce subsidies, especially in the energy and water sectors, 

v(2015-2020):  Improve the enforcement of green legislation;

v  (2016- 2050): Support R&D in the green economy;

v  (2015-2020): Reinforce the concept of participatory water & agriculture development 

v  (2018- 2028): Building Resilient Food Security Systems 

v  ( 2016- 2025): Reinforce Early Warning System for Drought 

v  (2016- 2020): Mainstreaming new policies and legislations

 


Related plans

Synergies of Reforestation & Community Empowerment in KenyaGreen Spot Project: Creating Sustainability in the Spaces We LivePromote Agroforestry Technologies for Farmers to Shrink Climate Change


References

References:

1)    Jordan’s Self-Assessment Report, For the Preparation of the Third National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 2011.

2)    Jordan’s Third National Communication on Climate Change, 2014, Submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Jordan.

3)      Cleaner Production In Plant Assessment Reports. http://www.cp.org.jo/

4)    http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/reports/climate/Jordan.htm

5)      Project Program Proposal: Increasing the resilience of poor and vulnerable communities to climate change impacts in Jordan through Implementing Innovative projects in water and agriculture in support of adaptation to climate change”. 2015, Submitted for Adaptation Fund Board Secretariat.

https://www.adaptation-fund.org/projects-programmes/endorsed-concepts/

6)      Climate CoLab previous Contests.