Kingdom drafts national adaptation plan for climate change

AMMAN — Jordan is formulating its first National Adaptation Plan (NAP) that will feature measures to enhance the country’s capacity to adapt to climate change in different sectors, according to experts in the field.

Representatives of the public sector and local and international organisations and institutions on Monday convened in a workshop organised by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) to integrate gender and vulnerable groups in the NAP process.

Participants in the two-day workshop are expected to present recommendations on how to develop a “Gender and Vulnerable Groups Action Plan” in the NAP process.

Director of the Climate Change Department at the Ministry of Environment Dina Kassbi underscored the importance of mainstreaming gender and vulnerable groups’ considerations in climate change policies.

Kassbi highlighted the need for enhanced adaptation to climate change, noting that both aspects of mitigation and adaptation to the global phenomenon are equally important to be incorporated in every strategy plan, project or programme.

Hussein Muhsen from the GIZ said that the NAP process seeks to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement as well as the country’s national contributions.

During the High Level Segment meeting at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Jordan pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 14 per cent by 2030, and to double the proportion of renewable energy in its total energy mix by 2020.

Signatories of the Paris agreement also committed to hold the rise in global temperatures below 2ºC and to strive for 1.5ºC. The agreement seeks to strengthen countries’ ability to deal with the impact of climate change.

Muhsen noted that stakeholders will analyse ways to address the needs of the most vulnerable groups of the population, focusing on gender-specific needs in the NAP process, among other planned activities.

Outlining the role of the NAP, he pointed out that while a country’s national determined contributions set the adaptation outcomes it is aiming for, the NAP details how to achieve the outcomes through planning, mainstreaming and stakeholder engagement processes required for effective adaptation.

The NAP is expected to be drafted by next year, according to Muhsen, who noted that aligning the NAP with the national determined contributions and the revision of the national determined contributions are scheduled for 2019.

Jordan’s 2013-2020 Jordan Climate Change Policy suggests that the country will witness a 1 to 4°C increase in temperatures and a 15 to 60 per cent decrease in precipitation. Both changes could in turn have a  serious impact on the Kingdom’s natural ecosystems, river basins, watersheds and biodiversity.

Meanwhile, a study carried out by the Stanford University and the Ministry of Water and Irrigation in 2015 indicated that climate change over the past two decades had caused a drastic drop in rainfall, prolonging dry spells in Jordan.