Green energy investments ‘great opportunity’ for job growth in Kingdom — report

AMMAN — Jordan has great potential to grow its economy and provide jobs through expanding its use of green energy, a report showed on Tuesday. 

The report is prepared by Phenix Centre for Economics & Informatics Studies, in cooperation with the German Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and titled “Green Economy: Great Opportunities to Enhance Development”.

The Kingdom, despite its role as a leading country in the transition to a green economy, was late in applying renewable-energy legislation, compared with neighbouring countries, according to the report. 

The report is published in conjunction with the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, which addresses means to reduce emissions by 2030 and help improve life on earth, especially in light of the planet’s increasing temperatures due to fossil fuel emissions, according to a centre statement.  

The report showed that Jordan does not allocate expenditure for climate and green economy projects in the annual budgets. 

Such allocations rely on foreign grants, which means that these projects do not receive much attention from successive governments, despite the International Labour Organisation’s expectation to provide 24 million jobs in the world by shifting to a green economy by 2030. 

The study pointed out that the water, tourism, industrial, energy and waste management sectors have great opportunities to create sustainable and jobs once they shift to alternative and renewable energy and recycling technologies.

The water sector consumes almost 15 per cent of the total electricity in Jordan. Reducing this cost through shifting to alternative energy resources could achieve $250 million in economic growth by 2025, which would consequently create more “green jobs” in the water sector.   

As for energy, the Kingdom has several renewable energy companies working under the electricity sector that provide around 12,000 jobs, including 5,400 in the renewable energy sector. 

Studies show that investments in renewable energy projects would provide more jobs by two to fivefold the current number. 

The tourism sector is an important component of the national economy and contributes to improving the GDP. However, the employment in the sector is low and only stands at about 10 per cent of the total workforce, which is below the international percentage of 15 to 18 per cent.

The report recommended encouraging investments in water desalination projects, such as the Red Sea-Dead Sea project, developing ways to reduce consumption, expanding water harvesting ventures, and inserting modern environment technologies in ground water schemes.