By Mohammad Ghazal – Nov 07,2015

AMMAN — Jordan and the EU on Saturday launched a media campaign to acquaint the public with the importance of using renewable energy in the country, which imports almost all of its energy needs every year.

The campaign, launched by the Energy Ministry and the EU delegation in Jordan, includes holding a series of activities and awareness sessions to highlight the benefits of using renewable energy and protecting the environment.

“The issue of energy efficiency is very important in Jordan, as securing energy resources is crucial to economic development and creating jobs,” Michael Koehler, director of neighbourhood policy at the EU, said at a press conference to launch the campaign.

“It is important to have laws facilitating adoption of renewable energy and implementing energy projects, but we also need to invest in the mindset of people and raise awareness among them on how important the issues of energy efficiency and renewable energy are,” Koehler added.

The awareness campaigns target public, schools, universities and the business sector.

They also include training sessions and using social media to spread the message about renewable energy.

Jordan currently has 1,000 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar projects under development, of which power purchase agreements have been signed for 400MW, according to Energy Ministry Secretary General Ghaleb Maabreh.

“We are currently refining our strategy to best support such projects with the required policy instruments — financial, technical and regulatory — in order to deliver this generation capacity cost effectively and in a financially sustainable way, with a fair distribution of benefits and costs,” he said.

Although the government is exerting great efforts to develop the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors in Jordan, consumers have made limited efforts to conserve energy, Maabreh told reporters.

The official said energy demand is rising in Jordan which will increase the burden on the economy as well as dependency on imported fuel.

In order to reduce this dependency, the national energy strategy seeks to increase renewable energy’s share in the energy mix to 10 per cent.
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