Ammon News - The Royal Scientific Society (RSS) said Tuesday it is stepping up its efforts to deal with climate change, which threatens Jordan's development achievements.
Climate change directly and indirectly affects various socioeconomic aspects of life, most notably water supply, food and health security, threatens biodiversity, increases desertification, and contributes to the destruction of arable lands, all of which affect the quantity and quality of crops, the RSS said in a press release.
The RSS, through its Climate Change Studies Division, in cooperation with different stakeholders, seeks to contribute to the development of a scientifically informed methodology to address climate change through building the capacities of local communities and institutions within the public and private sectors, it said.
Ruba Ajjour, Manager of Climate Change Studies Division at the RSS, said that climate change is already affecting all aspects of life and is expected to negatively impact the country's development and economic growth, a matter that needs systematic efforts and well planned climate action.
She said the division cooperates closely with stakeholders from line ministries, international organisations, civil society institutions, universities and schools to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The division has worked on the implementation of several projects, some were in the form of applied pilot projects, while others were carried out in the form of technical support and capacity-building as well as conducting technical analysis and preparing national reports, said Ajjour.
On addressing the issue of greenhouse gas emissions, Ajjour explained that the division, in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and with the support of the UN Development Program (UNDP), has prepared Jordan's first and second Biennial Update Reports on climate change which included national inventories of greenhouse gas emissions of all economic activities in all sectors.
The results of these reports are used as a base when preparing national sectoral strategies and when evaluating projects submitted for international funds, she pointed out.
With the support of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the division has provided technical support to the Ministry of Environment regarding the analysis of available mitigation scenarios to be included in the updated version of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), according to the statement.
This document was officially submitted to the UNFCCC Secretariat in which Jordan announced its intention to reduce 31% of its greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors by 2030, it said.
The division has also worked with the Information Technology Centre at RSS with the support of the World Bank to implement the Measurement, Reporting and Verification system (MRV) which is a computerized national system that links several ministries and institutions with the Ministry of Environment, it said.
The MRV system aims at tracking greenhouse gas emission reduction for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in order to develop national periodic reports for the Ministry of Environment to monitor the implementation of climate related plans, it explained.
In the agricultural sector, the statement pointed out that the division, in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Planning and through the support of the Adaptation Fund, has implemented a project to strengthen the resilience of the communities working in agriculture against climate changes.
This was done through conducting training workshops in Jordan Valley and Wadi Musa and through providing support to small projects aiming at changing the crop pattern to better adapt to climate change, it said.
Ajjour explained that the division, in cooperation with the Information Technology Centre at RSS, has developed an early warning system in the form of a mobile application and a web platform to enable farmers to access information about expected extreme weather events in order to be better prepared and to take the necessary precautions to protect their crops.
She highlighted the fact that Jordan is among the first countries within the region that realized early the importance of having a comprehensive action plan and the need to have full cooperation among all sectors to address climate change.
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