Sustainable development panel discusses preparations for Paris conference

AMMAN — The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation said Saturday it will cooperate with UN agencies to hold capacity-building programmes for ministries, the private sector, civil society and academia to mainstream the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into multi-sectoral strategies and plans.

At a meeting of the Higher National Committee on Sustainable Development, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury, who also chairs the panel, highlighted its role in coordinating national efforts to achieve the SDGs with a participatory approach.

Fakhoury stressed the importance of the meeting as a follow-up to the global summit on sustainable development held last September in New York, when world countries endorsed the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. The agenda includes sustainable development goals and targets that will form the foundation of a new international cooperation and partnership era that will be achieved by 2030, according to a ministry statement.

He said the ministry took the SDGs into consideration when drawing up the Jordan 2025 document.

The minister reiterated that the government is also keen to make those indicators reflected in the executive development programme 2016-2018. 

Discussions at the meeting addressed preparations for Jordan’s participation at the UN Conference on Climate Change 2015, due to be held in Paris between November 30 and December 11, 2015.

Environment Minister Taher Shakhshir, vice chair of the panel, said the Paris conference will lead to a new agreement on climate change. 

Although Jordan’s contribution to carbon emissions is limited, it has drawn ambitious goals in this respect that can be implemented if donors provide the necessary funding, Shakhshir added.

Raouf Dabbas, adviser to the minister of environment, said the outcomes of the Paris conference should be ambitious, comprehensive, fair and balanced for all countries, according to the statement. 

The conference should also come up with an international consensus to provide sufficient financial support from developed countries to developing ones to enhance their efforts in facing the impact of climate change, Dabbas noted. 

The level of voluntary procedures to face climate change should be relevant to and compatible with the national priorities and characteristics of each country, he added. 

The panel recommended highlighting a number of issues of high priority to Jordan, the most important of which is the impact of regional challenges on the Kingdom’s efforts to achieve sustainable development. 

On top of those challenges is the burden of Syrian refugees that strains the infrastructure and natural resources, the statement said.

The panel also recommended that all Jordanian institutions should strive to attract additional funding to face the impact of climate change.

All institutions should work — starting from next year — to maximise benefits from international assistance targeting climate change so that Jordan can play a leading role in this regard at the regional level, the committee added.