By Merza Noghai – Apr 07,2016 AMMAN — The first Jordan Dive Show kicked off on Thursday in Amman with the participation of more than 20 dive centres based in Aqaba, showcasing their services and scuba courses for beginner and advanced divers alike. The exhibition, which continues through Saturday, aims at acquainting Jordanians and tourists […]

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GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Scores of Palestinians demonstrated outside of the Palestinian Legislative Council building in Gaza City on Monday to protest the ongoing power crisis which recently took a turn for the worse after the Palestinian Authority (PA) revoked a tax exemption on fuel in Gaza. Gaza’s power plant shut down completely on April […]

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BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel has given initial approval to a Palestinian request to build a power plant in the northern occupied West Bank, the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said on Tuesday. In a statement released in Arabic, COGAT said the project for a gas power plant in the industrial zone […]

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By AFP – Apr 07,2016 ABU DHABI — Renewable energy capacity grew worldwide by a record 8.3 per cent in 2015, according to a report published on Thursday by a global green energy organisation. “As of the end of 2015, 1,985 gigawatts (GW) of renewable generation capacity existed globally,” the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) […]

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Darwn Rahim Kurdistan has long been recognized as the territory of a stateless nation, or a land that struggles to survive. These days the story has changed. Kurdistan has, according to some estimates, the seventh richest natural gas reserves in the world and holds 3-6 Trillion Cubic Meters of natural gas. Natural resources have been […]

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by Mohammad Ghazal – Apr 07,2016 AMMAN — Around 2,000 mosques in Jordan are expected to be fully running on renewable energy in two years, reducing their energy consumption by a minimum of 90 per cent, a government official said on Thursday. Currently, 400 mosques in Jordan generate their needs of electricity via solar energy […]

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By Hana Namrouqa – Apr 07,2016 AMMAN — Despite existing interdependencies between energy and water, decision makers, planning institutions and the scientific research community are still analysing both sectors separately, experts said on Wednesday. Weakness in research in the water-energy nexus holds particularly true for the West Asia North Africa (WANA) region, where research in […]

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The United States Embassy Beirut is hosting waste-to-energy expert Thomas Henderson as part of activities for Earth Day and in support of the Global Sustainable Development Goals, the embassy said on Thursday. “Henderson is in Lebanon from April 6 to 10 to share his 37 years of experience in the field of waste management with […]

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KUWAIT CITY — Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) nations can make a “net benefit” of $750 billion if they achieve their set targets on the use of renewable energy, a senior official said on Monday. “Almost every country in the [MENA] region has a target for renewable energy from 5-15 per cent,” by 2030, […]

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By MICHELLE MALKA GROSSMAN 04/04/2016 Report shows serious advances, yet Haifa ammonia factory’s promised relocation in dispute. For all those questioning what’s being done to fix pollution in Haifa, look no further than the Environmental Protection Agency’s quarterly report. It’s an update on how the government has been carrying out the plan to cut air […]

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By MICHELLE MALKA GROSSMAN 04/01/2016 Environmental Ministry official: Government has maintained complete transparency. The first official report on Haifa’s pollution and disease rates is ready, with one caveat: The government does not deem it ready for the public’s eyes just yet. On Thursday, the researchers carrying out a five-year Haifa epidemiology report submitted their findings […]

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Power-supply reductions and interruptions in Bethlehem and other cities due to the Palestinian Authority’s accumulated debt of 1.7 billion shekels, say Israel Electric Corp. officials. Jack Khoury Apr 04, 2016 The Israel Electric Corporation cut power Monday to large areas of the West Bank city of Bethlehem. The outage was part of a plan to […]

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RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) cut two-thirds of the power supply for the central West Bank district of Jericho on Thursday, the head of the Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDECO) said. Hisham al-Omari said that JDECO had not been officially informed of the “illegal procedure.” IEC’s decision sets a “dangerous precedent,” al-Omari said, […]

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$148 million wind power project inaugurated in Maan AMMAN — Energy Minister Ibrahim Saif on Sunday in Maan inaugurated a wind energy project to generate electricity, funded by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. The $148-million project aims at supporting the national economy and developing Maan, and […]

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MMAN — The fifth international conference for “Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in Desert Areas” kicked off on Monday at the University of Jordan. Inaugurated by HRH Prince Hamzah, the conference will discuss issues related to renewable energy and challenges facing investments in the sector, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. UJ caretaker President Azmi […]

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Maya Gebeily, AFP Monday, 4 April 2016 Text size A A A Imagine living near a trash dump so putrid that you would rather move to war-torn Syria. That’s what Fayyad Ayyash, his wife Riham and their four young daughters plan to do next week, leaving behind their home in Lebanon for neighbouring Syria. Their […]

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By Hana Namrouqa – Apr 05,2016 A regulation setting penalties for cutting old trees has come into effect (Photo courtesy of Barakat Zaza) AMMAN — A new regulation listing the names of centennial, rare and wild endangered trees and plants and banning cutting them down has entered into force after being issued in the Official […]

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By Merza Noghai – Apr 04,2016 PETRA — In 2008, local community members met to discuss a project aimed at protecting the natural heritage in Petra, which resulted in some recommendations the UNDP adopted in 2014. On Sunday, a ceremony was held in the red-rose city to launch the project. Called “Mainstreaming biodiversity conservation in […]

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Israeli court blocks government’s natural gas plan in blow to energy firms – Reuters By Ari Rabinovitch Israel’s Supreme Court blocked a controversial plan to develop the country’s natural gas fields on Sunday, dealing a blow to energy companies operating in the eastern Mediterranean and drawing fire from the government. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached […]

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By YOSEF I. ABRAMOWITZ 03/28/2016 The Start-Up Nation looks today a bit more like a banana republic, and we’re all to blame. Israel’s energy needs, ruled the High Court, cannot be fueled by unchecked political power. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the passage of the gas deal a signature economic initiative of this government – […]

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