Climate Change and Environment

Jordan faces serious climate change and environment challenges. Jordan is a semi-arid country with approximately 7% arable land, with limited natural resources, growing population, rapid urbanization, industrialization, depletion of natural resources and relies on imports to meet household and industrial energy requirements. Jordan is ranked among the poorest countries in the world in water availability, with a current per capita availability of 145 CM/year. Groundwater wells are being exploited at unsustainable rates.

Climate change is expected to affect the quantity and quality of the country's water resources. International studies, including reviews by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, have reported that regions with already scarce water resources, such as the Middle East will suffer even more from water scarcity. Increasing temperatures, coupled with changing precipitation patterns, are expected to decrease surface water availability, and acting on top of other stresses, increase water scarcity in the country. 

The effects of climate change on water scarcity, acting on top of other stresses, are expected to pose health risks to the Jordanian population. Issues related to water scarcity are considered the highest priority environmental health threat within Jordan and the wider region.

The sustainability of human development in Jordan is dependent on the availability of secure, adequate and clean energy sources which is threatened by the decline in both the quantity and quality of water resources. As a signatory to many major global environmental conventions, Jordan has begun to implement convention mechanisms in order to address environmental challenges.