Environment minister highlights energy strategy at Jordan Sustainability Summit

AMMAN — Muawieh Radaideh, the Minister of Environment and Acting Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, on Thursday highlighted Jordan's achievements in formulating long-term national strategies from 2020 to 2030. 

These strategies align with the vision of His Majesty King Abdullah to position Jordan as a regional centre for green development. 

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Jordan Sustainability Summit, Radaideh emphasised the key elements of Jordan's energy strategy, including drawing a roadmap for green hydrogen production, conducting studies on transitioning to electric transportation, and gradually adopting smart grids to enhance the contribution of renewable energy, as well as developing a roadmap to integrate energy storage systems into the national power grid. 

He also highlighted investment opportunities in energy infrastructure projects for the private sector, such as regional energy interconnections and improving energy efficiency across sectors. 

He mentioned the ongoing collaboration with partners to prepare the third national energy efficiency action plan for the years 2023 to 2025, with the aim of reducing energy consumption in all sectors.

Secretary-General of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Amani Azzam said that the Jordan Sustainability Summit comes as part of Jordan's achievements in increasing the contribution of renewable energy to the energy mix and boosting renewable energy's contribution to electricity generation, which stood at 27 per cent by the end of 2022. 

Azzam noted that Jordan aspires to increase this contribution to 50 per cent by 2030, which constitutes a good opportunity to achieve national commitments to reducing carbon emissions, as the Kingdom aims to reduce carbon emissions to 31 per cent by 2030.

CEO of Siemens in the Middle East Helmut von Struve stressed the importance of the summit, which reflects Siemens' decades-long relationship with Jordan and the Arab region, noting that the company is working on projects to increase productivity, efficiency and sustainability with local digital transformation partners.

He emphasised the support of the Jordanian government, the European Union, the World Bank and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) for several programmes to finance the green economy, sustainabile technology and services, and promote climate investments in Jordan.