Rasmi khazaalah: As the impacts of climate change intensify across the Arab region, Jordan is emerging as a model that can be built upon, thanks to its scientific expertise, skilled human resources, and academic and research institutions, despite facing rapidly rising temperatures, water scarcity, dwindling natural resources, and mounting pressure on food and energy sectors.
According to Jordan News Agency, experts and researchers participating in the Second Conference on Climate Change and Health in the Arab Region (CCHAR-II 2026), which opened in Amman on Monday under the patronage of HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, said Jordan is not limited to diagnosing the impacts of climate change, but has the scientific capabilities needed to move toward a more advanced stage based on developing practical solutions that link climate, health, food, water, and energy within an integrated system.
Speaking to the Jordan News Agency (Petra), they said Jordan has a genuine opportunity to turn its geographic position, human resources, and research capabilities into strengths, enabling it to approach climate change not only as a crisis requiring a response, but also as an opportunity to generate knowledge, foster innovation, develop clean energy, improve food, water, and health security, and build greater resilience to the climate of the future.
Harvard University environmental health professor Dr. Marc Weisskopf said Jordan has a genuine capacity to address climate challenges, supported by qualified human resources, universities, and researchers who use scientific methods to understand climate and environmental changes and their impacts. He stressed the importance of linking climate, food, health, and energy issues, as they are interconnected and cannot be addressed in isolation. Developing an integrated climate-focused system, he said, could provide a more effective foundation for responding to future challenges.
Weisskopf noted that Jordan is among the countries most affected by rising temperatures, while its location at the heart of an Arab region facing accelerating climate change, growing climate instability, water scarcity, and increasing desertification adds to the scale of the challenges. At the same time, he said, these challenges create opportunities to develop practical, science-based solutions.
He explained that the participation of US research teams in the conference aims to bring them closer to the realities on the ground in Jordan and provide a direct understanding of the nature and scope of its challenges. This would allow researchers to convey a more accurate picture to US universities and research centers and encourage greater research interest and cooperation focused on Jordan and the climate issues it faces.
For his part, Texas AandM University professor of agricultural and biological engineering Dr. Mokhtar Rabie said Jordan was among the first countries in the region to address climate change scientifically, relying on information and evidence to assess problems and determine their dimensions. Jordan has a solid database in the fields of climate and the environment and has succeeded in diagnosing a significant portion of its challenges, he said. This puts the Kingdom before an even more important stage: moving from diagnosis and research to implementing practical and effective solutions, particularly in the climate and energy sectors.
Rabie said that having knowledge and data is a fundamental step in addressing climate change, but the real challenge lies in translating that knowledge into policies, projects, and solutions capable of producing a tangible impact on people's lives and on economic and productive sectors.
Researcher Liri Luky Garcia of the University of California, San Diego, said the level of research and studies conducted in Jordan on the interconnections between climate, energy, food, and water reflects significant scientific efforts made over recent years to highlight these issues and seek appropriate solutions. She pointed to genuine opportunities for Jordan to address climate change scientifically, saying that the challenges posed by high temperatures and resource scarcity could, if properly leveraged, become new opportunities in the clean energy sector.
She cited the potential to capitalize on high temperatures and abundant renewable energy resources to develop emerging sectors, including green hydrogen, which could help Jordan diversify its energy sources, create new economic opportunities, reduce emissions, and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The views of the three experts converge on a key point: Jordan now has an important foundation for developing a more integrated climate response. Scientific knowledge, universities, specialized expertise, and databases represent key strengths, while linking climate with health, water, food, and energy provides a broader framework for understanding risks and addressing them.