Ammon News - The world Bank Group launched the Climate and Development Report for Jordan, in partnership with the Jordanian government, at a public event held in Amman, on Wednesday.

Jordan is faces severe scarcity of water resources, rapid population growth, and has a limited natural resource base, according to the report.

The world Bank stressed in its report “Country climate and Development Report”, that Jordan moved early to place climate commitments and climate action at the heart of the development model, in the face of severe water scarcity, rapid population growth and limited natural resource base.
In the report, the bank called for finding innovative financing solutions and accelerating the pace of work in order to achieve the Kingdom's ambitious goals in terms of climate action, achieving growth and promoting development.

“Although greenhouse gas emissions in Jordan are relatively low at the global level, Jordanian cities provide great opportunities for climate action in the urban development, transportation and energy sectors due to the high rate of urban and urban expansion in Jordan,” according to the report.

In the report, the World Bank estimated Jordan's additional investment needs to achieve resilient, low-carbon development in key sectors at about $9.5 billion.

Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Nasser Shraidah, said that the government is making plans to move forward towards promoting the green economy, and has placed this as a priority in the new economic modernization plan over the next ten years.

Environment Minister Muawieh Radaideh said that the government relayed on the report to draw plans for economic modernization towards green growth for Jordan in the next ten years.

He added that the climate change is a global issue and has increased in the recent period, and Jordan is facing a great challenge due to low water levels due to climate change and population density.

He explained that Jordan hosts refugees in several waves of asylum, which made Jordan the second poorest country in the world in terms of water, which affected agriculture, industry and the quality of life.

Jordan hopes to reduce 31% of greenhouse energy emissions by the next ten years.

For his part, World Bank Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa, Ferid Belhaj, said that the countries of the region are most affected by climate change, water scarcity, rectification, deforestation, and pressure on water resources.

He called for moving forward towards new policies to address the challenge of climate change, praising His Majesty the King's vision of economic modernization towards mitigating the impact of climate change and adapting to it.

And he indicated that the World Bank has provided billions of dollars to the countries of the region to meet the challenge of climate change and promote green investments, and the World Bank will work during the coming months in a meeting of partners to expand the terms of reference for combating poverty and achieving prosperity as a main goal in the bank’s future work.

He continued, “The Jordanian government's dealings with managing the pressures that refugees place on the infrastructure is an example that we talk about in front of the world, and we know that what the government is doing is not exclusive to Jordan, but rather we take it and borrow from it to work on similar ones in other countries”, Belhaj said.