The World Environment Day, celebrated every year on June 5, is one of the principle vehicles to increase public awareness of the need to protect and improve the environment.
As the effects of climate change have become clear and visible, the environment day for the year 2007 has adopted the slogan "Melting Ice – A Hot Topic?”. Therefore, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Jordan in collaboration with the Jordanian government represented by the Ministry of the Environment is endeavoring to raise the public awareness and increase knowledge on topics relating to the phenomenon of climate change and the need for the cooperation of all parties to reduce the risks.
Jordan was among the first signatories to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and since then, several important projects that contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change have been carried out by the government of Jordan in cooperation with UNDP. In 2000, the first ever Biogas Plant in the Middle East was established with the aim to convert waste to electricity and therefore, reducing the destructive gases released by the garbage into the air that causes climate change. The expansion of the Plant is ongoing now to increase the production of the electricity from 1 Megawatt to 3.5 Megawatts.
The Ministry of Environment launched at the end of 2006 the
project “
Enabling Activities for the Preparation of Jordan's Second National Communication to the UN Framework the project aims at assisting Jordan with the enabling activities necessary to undertake the country’s Second National Greenhouse Gas Inventory report to the Conference of Parties in accordance with the guidance of the UNFCCC. In addition, this project will help strengthen Jordan’s capacity to fulfill its commitments to the UNFCCC on a continuing basis. The project will also seek to limit the emission and absorption of greenhouse gases, analyze procedures and potential mitigation options to reduce the emission of these gases and analyze their potential impacts on climate change.Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)”. Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF),
On the other hand, a self-assessment project of Jordan’s capacity towards the implementation of the global environment conventions, namely, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on Combating Desertification, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change started its work in 2004. The project identified and assessed Jordan’s critical capacity limitations, its constraints and capacity required with the aim to enable the country to prepare a coherent and comprehensive approach and to mobilize resources towards addressing these conventions.
Since the increased consumption of energy by humans leads to burning more fuel and thus raise the proportion of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, UNDP is currently investigating aspects of cooperation with the National Center for Research and Energy to reach the management and rationalization of electricity through a project for "designing and establishing an energy labeling system for household appliances". The project will initially focus on the locally manufactured refrigerators, air-conditioners and washing machines through providing consumers with the necessary information on optimizing the consumption of these devices, and as a result will enable them to choose the most efficient and least energy-consuming.
To strengthen and enhance community participation, the GEF Small Grants Program (SGP) has funded several projects implemented by local communities from different regions in Jordan that address critical threats to the national and global environment. Among those that addressed climate change, local communities managed through different projects to monitor emissions along highways, increase public knowledge and awareness in relation to environmental pollution and ways to mitigate its effects, encourage the use of solar energy, waste recycling and reuse, a reclamation has been made to Marka disposal site and was turned into a park and a center for a local community NGO. Moreover, local communities had successfully organized an exhibition of appliances for conservation and rationalization of energy and took actions to conserve soil through addressing its degradation and improving its quality. They have introduced water harvesting techniques, modern irrigation techniques that efficiently use water and addressed made use of gray water.
Jordan was one of the first countries determined to protect the climate system for present and future generations locally and globally, due to its conviction that change in the earth's climate and its adverse effects and the increase concentrations of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and its negative impact on humanity in general, are a common concern to all humankind and calls for collaborative work from all.