Climate Action in Jordan

In January 2024, Housing and Land Rights Network, in collaboration with Habitat international Coalition Member in Jordan Dibeen Association, organized a workshop for 15 participants representing CSOs, relevant government bodies, and youth on “Climate Change Loss and Damage Methodology in the Context of Green Finance, Jordan as a case.”                        

The workshop aimed to develop tools to document and produce data on climate action in the Jordan’s green transformation. These involved applying the principles of reparation in quantifying loss and damage with input from affected communities. That exercise was meant to contribute to the human-centered development of such bodies as the Fund responding to Loss and Damage (FLD). To do so, it made full use of existing human rights norms as a minimum standard. The workshop applied available norms as practical tools for building the expertise and technical skill of local communities, based on the principles of climate justice and the methodology of human rights related to habitat: adequate housing, food, water, land and environment.  

The workshop followed the resolution establishing the FLD at CoP28 in Dubai in November 2023. That was a significant step toward fulfilling the promises of state parties to the UN Climate Change Conventions (UNCCC) at CoP27. It also coincided with the crises several countries in MENA region are facing, experiencing severe droughts caused by climate change arising from human activity. Resulting environmental hazards include poor levels of rainfall, contributing to increased food insecurity, and forcing many in affected countries in the region into internal displacement or forced migration. Metaphorically, this crisis comes at the convergence of habitat rights and their deprivation.

Resource-poor Jordan is one of the countries in the Middle East region particularly affected by climate change, with increasingly higher temperatures and lower rainfall. Moreover, Jordan faces the further challenge of ensuring around 3.35 million refugees (about one-third of the population) realize their human rights to adequate food and housing, while providing public services to them.

In this context, the workshop raised awareness about the functional relationship between human rights and climate action. It laid the groundwork for a common understanding of key concepts such as climate change, climate justice, adaptation, mitigation, remedy and reparation, loss and damage, as well as international climate-related instruments: UNFCCC, the Paris Agreement, CoP 28 outcomes, remedy and reparations framework, etc.

The workshop’s exchange of experiences covered several related fields of combating (prevention, mitigation and adaptation) climate change and its impacts. The strategic discussion identified next steps for participants to deepen (1) understanding of the normative issues and (2) capacities to implement specialized actions after the workshop in line with the participants` own professional functions.

The workshop reviewed the development of the concept of loss and damage leading up to the establishment of the FLD, as well as climate justice in the context of human rights. Then participants diagnosed Jordan`s overall loss and damage associated with climate change, and the pressing challenge of refugee protection and assistance due to `well-founded fear` of persecution and vital threats. They found Jordan in a situation whereby it must apply for reparation to avoid further loss and damage to the country.

In the workshop, HLRN coordinator Joseph Schechla reviewed the loss and damage methodology within the Executive Committee of the Warsaw Mechanism, presenting the most important results and agreements over the course of the CoP and the role of countries in activating and resourcing the loss and damage fund.  He also presented the main points of his report on Funding the Green Transformation in Jordan, highlighting funding challenges for mitigation and adaptation programs and projects to be relevant and sustainable. 

At the end of the workshop the participants issued recommendations, the most important of which were:

• To urgently establish a specific and clear national mechanism, involving all relevant state and social institutions, for predicting potential risks associated with climate change in Jordan, with a view to avoiding as much further loss and damage as possible;
• Forming a national climate-change committee that includes all relevant public bodies and stakeholders, highlighting the most important impacts of climate change on the all sectors;
• Promote a participatory and consultative approach with the other countries in the region, benefiting from each other`s experiences, to expand opportunities for funding, reparation, mitigation and adaptation.
• Recognize and emphasize the pivotal role of CSOs organizations that link society and decision makers for the latter to better understand the needs of society through policy papers and reports of the reality and priorities for remedy.

Image on front page: Map of Jordan’s climate zones. Source: Beck, H.E., T.R. McVicar, N. Vergopolan, A. Berg, N.J. Lutsko, A. Dufour, Z. Zeng, X. Jiang, A.I.J.M. van Dijk, D.G. Miralles, “High-resolution (1 km) Köppen-Geiger maps for 1901–2099 based on constrained CMIP6 projections,” Scientific Data 10, 724 (climate change in Jordan, 2016), http://www.gloh2o.org/koppen. Image on this page: Mohammad Ghazal, “Climate change to hit impoverished Jordanians the hardest, streamlining funding process vital to build resilience,” Jordan Times (6 September 2022), https://jordantimes.com/news/local/climate-change-hit-impoverished-jordanians-hardest-streamlining-funding-process-vital.