Climate change is considered to be one of the most prominent challenges of the current era, as it negatively impacts a variety of development sectors. In addition to the impact on human society, the most important of these effects are water scarcity, drought, dangerous changes in sea levels and plant life, as well as increased rates of extinction for animal and plant species. Overall, climate change is occurring because human activity has increased the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, trapping more heat.
The United Nations has declared that the world is currently at a critical moment because the effects of climate change are widespread and unprecedented in scope regarding the change in weather patterns that threaten food production along with the increase in sea levels which increase the risk of catastrophic flooding. This will make adapting to these effects more costly and difficult in the future if drastic steps are not taken now.
To date, Jordan has joined numerous international agreements aimed at adapting to and limiting the effects of climate change in the kingdom and around the world. According to a report issued in 2021 by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Jordan is considered to be among the world’s most vulnerable to drought as a result of climate change.
Although the efforts Jordan has undertaken to fight climate change are ambitious, they are limited in practice because of the need for a long-term response as well as the limited nature of resources. The limited nature of resource relates not only to only financial resources but also includes human resources.
Indeed, a shortage of funding remains a primary challenge in implementing climate change adaptation projects such as reforestation, pasture restoration, and water projects. The estimated cost of mitigation projects and interventions envisioned by Jordan to alleviate the severity of the problem is approximately 7.5 billion USD. Jordan is responsible for securing the financing necessary to cover 5 percent of the kingdom's total goal to reduce emissions by 31 percent whereas the remaining 26 percent is conditioned on international funding and support. Generally, climate-related funding remains weak and incomplete, and the financing process is often slow and bureaucratic, with approval and decision-making processes proving long and arduous.
At the same time, there are also not enough sufficiently qualified human cadres to confront climate change in Jordan, as many of the people in this field rely on their personal judgments and are not put through the necessary training to face such a challenge. The threat of climate change requires specific training that allows people to develop their competencies and abilities to implement both future and immediate plans that are applicable and impactful.
The primary way to mitigate the effects of climate change on vital sectors such as agriculture and water is to fully implement the plans and strategies that have been developed in this regard. Thus, the imperative to unify efforts among policy makers in all institutions at the national, regional, and global levels has come to the fore in an unprecedented way, as governments are realizing that plans to mitigate the effects of climate change, along with the development of coherent and synergistic responses to the crisis, must be a top priority.
However, it seems that the Jordanian government, despite its public rhetoric, does not attach real importance to climate change in practice, as it does not appear that the current agricultural or water plans are capable of dealing with the expected challenges impacting water levels and food security, especially since Jordan is one of the three water poorest countries. This reality is directly reflected in agriculture and livestock breeding.
Thus, unless immediate action is taken to make agriculture more sustainable, productive, and resilient, climate change will affect food production, as climate change has direct and indirect impacts on agricultural productivity, including through changing precipitation patterns, droughts, floods, extreme temperatures, and the geographic redistribution of pests and diseases.
According to the latest records, more than 90 percent of Jordan’s territory has rainfall less than 200 mm per year, and the long-term rainfall rate is about 95 mm per year. Yet, water needs increase each year due to steady increases in the population, which have stemmed, in part, from the arrival of new groups of refugees. Ultimately, Jordan needs about 1.4 billion cubic meters of water annually, but it maintains a deficit of about 500 million cubic meters annually. The shortage is addressed by over pumping underground wells, whose water withdrawal rate is higher than the annual water storage rate.
Against this backdrop, Jordan is witnessing one of the worst periods of drought in its history as a result of climate change. More specifically, the drought is caused by low rates of precipitation and high temperatures, which have had a disastrous impact on the water and agricultural sectors in the valley regions of the country, particularly the Jordan Valley. This means that the areas that were once considered to be the breadbasket of Jordan have become threatened and will be unable to sustain production unless real, fundamental, and sustainable solutions are sought.
Moreover, the impact of climate change is not limited to the agricultural and water sectors. Rather, its impact will extend to various sectors, as climate change will lead to a gradual increase in diseases in children resulting from a lack of access to water. These diseases could hinder children’s development and also decrease their ability to learn.
Jordanian society is at risk of becoming a poorer society as a result of the tangible effects that climate change will have on the structure of society and social values. Additionally, the threat to security and social peace will put additional pressure on the state and its security apparatus, in a way that affects the distribution of expenditures in the general budget. Spending on security necessities will increase at the expense of the real need to confront climate change.
Furthermore, one of the most jarring effects of climate change, if not dealt with in a deliberate manner, will be the decline in women’s economic empowerment, as women are considered to be among the most vulnerable and marginalized groups globally, and women are the most affected by global economic crises, natural disasters, epidemics, and pandemics. This also means that women will be most affected by disasters caused by climate change.
Women make up 70 percent of the world’s poorest, which means they have minimal or no education, worse health care, and less access to food resources. The percentage of illiterate women globally is approximately 63 percent of the total illiterate population, twice the number of illiterate men, and this percentage will likely increase as climate change accelerates. This highlights that the effects of climate change will extend throughout society by hindering the empowerment of large population groups.
Here, the importance of increasing knowledge and raising awareness of the effects of climate change, and empowering people, especially youth, as agents of change, is highlighted. The meaningful participation of youth in decisions that affect their lives and their futures, particularly in regard to sustainable natural resource management and climate change, must be supported.
Climate change is the result of years of indifference on the part of industrialized countries, and it is also the result of the inability of decision makers to anticipate the future. Yet, climate change has made us realize that we all live on one planet, and that all of our destinies are linked. If we cannot take progressive and bold steps to address what we can in regard to climate change and build rules and mechanisms to deal with the resulting developments, the attempts of individual countries will remain futile. Climate change threatens us all so we must unite to confront it.
Roman Haddad is a researcher and political analyst who obtained a PhD in law from Amman Arab University. He is also a rights activist and a member of the Association of Democratic Journalists in the Arab World.
Note: This film was produced by Bayan Sabra, a Jordanian filmmaker. You can follow her on Twitter: @Bayan_M_Sabra.
