AMMAN — The Seventh International
Investment Forum for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in the
MENA region
started in Amman on Sunday, drawing broad Arab and international participation,
according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.
اضافة اعلان
The three-day forum, organized by the
Arab Renewable Energy Commission (AREC), is slated to cover a wide range of topics, including
renewable energy, energy efficiency, smart cities, smart grids, green hydrogen,
and sustainability.
AREC President Issa Kuwari said in his opening
remarks that one of the top priorities of the Arab world’s energy transition
and sustainable development is to build a strong infrastructure and achieve
electrical interconnection between Arab countries, which, he stressed, are
critical to the Arab world’s overall progress and prosperity.
He emphasized the
importance of serious and innovative scientific research in enabling Arab
societies to achieve a qualitative leap in development at all levels, noting
that his home country, Qatar, will host the first carbon-neutral World Cup.
Secretary-General of the
Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Amani Al-Azzam said that Jordan’s energy sector has faced
numerous challenges the over the past decade, the most significant being the
country’s total dependence on energy imports, which surpassed 98 percent in
2011, causing the sector, and the overall economy, to incur significant losses.
Therefore, she continued, Jordan needed to plan
ahead, with the goal of reaching self-sufficiency and diversifying, setting up
policies for affordable, safe, sustainable, and reliable energy.
Azzam indicated that 2,500 megawatts of the
Kingdom’s total energy output come today from clean and renewable sources,
noting that renewables make up 26 percent of the nation’s total 2021 energy
consumption.
She also said that Jordan has seen a major jump in
the number of electric vehicles (EVs) in recent years. Currently there are
around 37,000 EVs, accounting for 2 percent of all vehicles on the Kingdom’s
roads, with plans to increase this percentage to 30 percent by 2030.
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