40 Days and Counting

We have now only 40 days until the negotiations start in Copenhagen. It is not much, but if all make an effort we will be able to seal the climate deal in Copenhagen. Climate change is a fact. We cannot ignore that human activity and the burning of fossil fuels carries a major responsibility for this. We have to act through a firm global response.

Denmark is preparing itself to be the host of one of the biggest international government conferences in our country’s history. We expect about 15000 participants in the conference.

Our objective is to conclude a new, ambitious global agreement on climate change that includes all countries of the world and which includes ambitious targets for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

Global emissions need to be reduced by up to 50 % by the middle of this century – compared to 1990 CO2 emission levels – if dangerous consequences of climate change should be avoided.

The Copenhagen climate change agreement should deal with 4 elements:

• First, how much are the industrialized countries willing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gasses?
• Second, how much are major developing countries such as China and India willing to limit their growth of their emissions?
• Third, how is the help needed by developing countries in reducing and adapting to climate change going to be financed?
• Fourth, how is the money spend going to be accounted for and verified?

This is the challenge we are facing at Copenhagen. I know that Jordan is broadly on the same line as we are – so we are looking forward to hosting this very important meeting. I have noticed that also Jordanian press have intensified its coverage of Climate Change during recent months, and I guess the next 40 days until we open the negotiations in Copenhagen will see an even more intensified coverage of this topic. The conference on the 8^th of November at the Columbia University in Amman will be an occasion for the press to focus on the climate change issue.

Jordan Times article

Al Ghad article

Let’s get going – Samsø shows the way

This example shows how important it is to create local “ownership” and some incentives be it financially or morally to get a positive development going. I have written about the “Samsø” experience before but always felt that it was important that Jordanians could hear directly from the people involved in making a small local community independent from fossil fuels. My collaborators at the embassy succeed in securing one of the key persons Jesper Kjems from Samsø to appear at the first Euro-Jordanian renewable energy conference that opened yesterday   in Amman. For those that did not have the possibility to attend I reproduce an interview on the Samsø experience from Jordan Times today.

But back to my point. In Jordan we need successful showcases in order to advance the use of renewable energy and lessen the near total dependence on imported energy. I am sure that we have communities in Jordan that are interested and capable of pushing things forward – but the government and parliament needs to create the right positive conditions for such a development – one of those being the adoption of a good progressive renewable energy law. And while we wait for that we can hope that the first commercial wind power plant in Al Khamsah will get off to a good start and show potential investors that renewable energy means business – also in Jordan.

Island village offers lessons in renewable energy

 By Taylor Luck

AMMAN – Jordan has much to learn from a small farming community in northern Denmark, according to energy experts.

At first glance, the Kingdom, mostly desert, has little in common with the island of Samso, an agricultural area home to 4,000.

But villages and towns across the country have much to learn from a community, which, in less than a decade, became the world’s first complete renewable energy city through local community involvement.

In 1998, the town embarked on an experiment to become 100 per cent renewable in 10 years under a Danish government initiative, with no grants, funds or assistance from the government or outside institutions.

Armed with only a renewable energy-friendly investment environment, Samso organised focused local community involvement to build the foundations for a clean-energy future.

A traditional and conservative farming community entirely dependent on oil and coal shipped from the mainland, few thought Samso could fulfil the goal – let alone in 10 years time, according to Jesper Kjems of the Samso Energy Academy.

Project officials met with local residents and highlighted the initiative not as a chance to save the environment, but as a business opportunity to breathe life into the island, which had suffered a mini-depression after the closure of a slaughterhouse vital to its economy.

Under national economic incentives, Samso entrepreneurs were provided with a guaranteed minimum price for the electricity generated by wind turbines, with insurance in case of technical failures, assuring local banks providing financing that the turbines were indeed a safe investment.

Dozens of farmers pooled together and purchased the turbines, which many found to be more profitable than the farms they had tended to their entire lives.

“In areas where private companies just throw up wind turbines, residents see them as obtrusive. But when people actually own and benefit from them, they don’t mind seeing a turbine in their backyard,” Kjems noted.

To further local ownership, wind turbines were also open to public investment through local cooperatives, allowing Samso’s private citizens to own shares in turbines and profit from the export of energy back to mainland.

Around 450 citizens, some 10 per cent of the population, bought shares in wind power plants, and the 10 one-megawatt (MW) turbines soon accounted for 100 per cent of the island’s electricity needs.

“It became locally owned. Even if one resident didn’t own a share in the wind energy, their neighbour did, their wife did. It changed the way the community looked at the entire project,” he noted.

For heating, Samso residents turned to biomass and solar energy, burning of local straw and utilising some 2,500 solar panels to heat water which is then transferred to their homes.

Owned and operated by local companies, heating districts run by elected councils of area residents, and consumer-owned heating systems, the biomass/solar heaters now account for 77 per cent of the island’s heating needs.

The largest obstacle to creating a completely carbon-neutral community, according to Kjems, however, was transportation.

“For electric cars the technology was so far off. It just wasn’t realistic,” he said.

To offset the fossil fuels used by the transportation sector, the island established ten 2.3MW offshore wind turbines in the North Sea, generating and exporting more clean energy than was consumed by cars, buses or ferries to and from the mainland.

The island has since become a leading energy destination, attracting journalists and foreign dignities from far and wide to learn from their accomplishments.

Kjems noted that officials from Egypt doubted such an initiative could be replicated on a larger scale, as the population of Samso is equivalent to just two city blocks in Cairo.

For him, the answer is simple.

“Make two city blocks 100 per cent renewable, then maybe the next two blocks will follow. You have to start somewhere local, and let everyone learn for themselves the benefits and cross over,” he noted.

Such an approach would work well in Jordan, either at the regional or municipal level, he said.

Officials in Jordan could utilise tribal or family structures to identify community leaders to support the initiative, and promote the financial incentives in the sector to local farmers and landowners.

Noting that the technology used by Samso is imported from mainland Denmark or overseas, Kjemp stressed that Jordan does not need to produce renewable energy technology to benefit. Local application of the technology and investment alone can create jobs and reduce the country’s energy bill, he added.

“The model would have to be modified for Jordan to utilise vast resources of sunshine. But it can be done in any village or any city here,” he noted, stressing that making the switch to renewable energies is in peoples’ interests is key to success.

“Not many people care about saving the polar bears. But if you tell people that renewable energy will save Jordan, will save this village, they will begin to act,” he said.

The 10 big energy myths

The COP15 homepage has undergone an extensive remake – it will be THE webpage for climate related issues in 2009. Lots of prominent writers like Jeffery Sachs and Gro Harlem Brundtland will blog about climate change and a dedicated blog will look behind the scenes on how to organize a global conference with 12.000-15.000 participants.

For my part I am eagerly looking for Jordanian journalists/writers that work on climate change / energy / environment so any hints to such persons will be highly appreciated.

The COP15 site links to this little gemstone about 10 big energy myths. I certainly hope for Jordan that the myth about nuclear is true and not as told in this story.

Speech from the Throne

His Majesty King Abdullah II mentioned two topics in his speech from the Throne that particulary caught my attention last Sunday in Parliament.

The first one was HM’s directive to the Government to establish timetables for rapidly implementing the new energy policy for Jordan. This policy will focus on nuclear energy, energy from oil shale and on wind power. The National Center for Energy Research reacted to these directives saying that focus should be on the renewable energy sources since these are the only ones that can be implemented quickly. Nuclear and oil shale has a much longer perspective whereas the renewable technology is well known and ready for implementation.

I can only support this point of view – but I also have to stress that in order to move forward on renewable it is necessary to establish the right legal, administrative and financial conditions for such progress. The draft law on renewable energy is one of those instruments that have to be adopted sooner rather than later in order to create these favourable conditions. I believe that this law will be on the agenda of Parliament in this session. It will be do-or-die for that kind of energy in Jordan.

There is also another reason that the government should move fast on this. The new energy strategy adopted by the Royal Commission headed by prince Hamza has set an ambitious target of 10% renewable energy in 2020. Today renewable energy is de facto energy from wind power. Solar and wave might take off commercially in the next ten years but it is not the case today. Thus, as the whole world sees the need for lowering carbon emissions demand for wind turbines is on the rise and delivery times already measured in years instead of months – not to mention the complicated and very time consuming tendering process. In order to fulfil the target of renewable energy in 2020 Jordan has to move rapidly.

Fortunately, Jordan – as Denmark – is gifted with some extremely promising and highly efficient wind sites. That means that the potential for renewable energy from wind power probably is higher than 10% of the total energy mix. This is an advantage that Jordan should exploit to the highest degree.

The other topic that caught my attention was the emphasis that His Majesty put on the need for local development. The idea is to develop the local administrative entities (municipalities and regions) so that they will be able to provide reliable public services to local citizens. At the same time these entities should be accountable to the local public and thus enhance public political participation. A Royal Commission has been formed to look into the question of decentralizing.

This topic lies at the core of democratic development. Public participation at the local level paired with efficient local institutions equipped with the necessary administrative tools and financial means is highly important in the development of a democratic society. This is – like energy – an area where my country has a world renowned experience. We have been through different stages in developing local government and decentralization – a new reform was recently implemented – and we are happy to assist Jordan in this endeavour. As a matter of fact, this exact area is one where we for the last two years have been very active working with the relevant Jordanian authorities and we look forward to continue this cooperation. More on this later.

Living a Green Dream on Danish Island

As you all know we at the Embassy work hard on helping green energy take off in Jordan. For economic and security reasons green energy is a particular good idea for Jordan. There is a great but yet unexploited local potential for this - and this we gotta change.

So to my great pleasure I discovered a long story in Jordan Times today about some of the lessons we have learned in Denmark about renewable energy. The article is not on JT’s website, but for your information I have reproduced it below with the help of this site.

Basically, a small Danish Island with 4000 inhabitants have decided to go carbon neutral with the help of wind, sun, and bio-fuel. And at the same time created new jobs…of course this can and must be reproduced elsewhere on the Globe. They have gone far beyond official Danish and EU targets for cutting emissions and their success have become quite a story in the international press – hence the article in JT. The New Yorker did a serious if not rather scary piece on it as well.

It shows that with a bit of private initiative and ingenuity you can achieve amazing results. And for those seeking further information the small island community have made their own elaborate homepage called the Samso Energy Academy. Have a look at it.

One worrying thing though – the demand for wind turbines is so high and still rising that one have to plan quickly and move fast in order to secure delivery within a reasonable time span. 

Here goes the article:

Living the Green Dream
Martin Burlund of Reuters visits the Danish community that has become self sufficient in renewable power.

Concerns about energy security may run high elsewhere in Europe, but on the windswept Danish island of Samso the inhabitants have achieved a decade-long target of self sufficiency in renewable power.

It’s a challenge their government set the island in 1997 and which has been largely funded through local taxes and individual investments, in one of Europe’s wealthier countries – Denmark’s GDP per capita was more than $35,000 in 2006.

“The windswept Danish island of Samso has achieved a decade-long target of self sufficiency in renewable power.”Now the islanders have shown that where there’s a wind, there’s a way – and in the process mounted a global showcase for one of the prize export industries in Denmark, which is home to the world’s largest wind-turbine maker, Vestas.

“I often use Samso as an ambitious example of how to cope with the big challenges that our own country faces in the race to become independent of fossil fuels,” said Randy Udall, a US energy sustainability activist.

Based in Colorado, Udall imports ideas from all over the world on how to make communities self-sufficient in energy.

Sustainable Samso

On Samso, which is home to just 4,000 people, wind turbines tower over green fields and rise from the choppy waters of the North Sea; rye, wheat and straw are used to heat the one-storey buildings and solar panels have sprouted on roof tiles.

“I think Samso has set an agenda for the climate issue and, alongside other projects, it has shown that this is possible,” said Soren Hermansen, director of the Samso Energy Academy and one of the project’s main drivers.

Without any construction subsidies, the islanders have invested kr400m ($84.35m) – an average of more than $20,000 a citizen.

“We invested $84m – a big number for 4,000 people – but in reality it’s not a whole lot,” said islander Jorgen Tranberg, who describes himself as a milk producer who ‘owns a couple of turbines’.

In Denmark’s geographical centre, Samso used to be best known for its early-season potatoes. Now 11 onshore wind turbines cover all local electricity demands and 70% of the island’s homes are heated using biofuels or solar power.

While some homes have opted to stay with oil furnaces for heating and cars are still common, the island has become carbon neutral by erecting ten offshore wind turbines, in addition to the 11 on land, to offset the automobiles’ carbon emissions and those from the 30% of homes still heated by oil.

“We even produce far more electricity than we need,” said Hermansen. The surplus is sold to the mainland.

To promote wind power, the Danish government subsidises wind energy production to the tune of about 20% to 50% of the final cost of power to consumers.

Beating the EU

The islanders’ efforts dovetail with European Union policy but have gone much further than official targets.

“Wind turbines tower over green fields and rise from the choppy waters of the North Sea.”The European Union has committed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by a fifth by 2020 from 1990 levels, and to get one fifth of all energy demand from renewable sources such as wind, solar and biomass.

Some islanders say the renewable project has been helped by developing as a grassroots venture rather than having targets and regulations imposed by a bureaucracy. “First of all you need determination and can-do spirit, and then you need an economic foundation to make it possible,” Tranberg told Reuters in the cockpit of his wind turbine.

Many islanders own shares in the onshore wind turbines, an investment that they originally hoped would pay back after eight to ten years. A stronger-than-expected wind – blowing 10%-15% more force than expected into the blades – cut the payback time and now Samso Energy Academy says a share in a wind turbine generates about kr500 a year in income.

“We held a lot of meetings, but we managed to do it because we hired good experts and trusted our own instinct,” said Tranberg, who bought one early turbine himself and then a second offshore one with a partner.

“What is intriguing about Samso is their ability to make this project a sport for them, to show that this can be done,” said the US activist Udall.

There have been secondary benefits for islanders too: cement was needed to build the turbines’ foundations, solar panels had to be installed and homeowners began to demand better insulation. This gave blacksmiths and cement workers a reason to stay on the island at a time of economic slowdown: five families moved in to take on new ‘renewable energy’ jobs.

Overseas interest

The project has attracted great overseas interest: ambassadors representing foreign countries in Denmark, on a recent trip to see Samso’s small towns driven by solar panel farms and wind power, were impressed.

“Without any construction subsidies, the islanders have invested kr400m ($84.35m) – an average of more than $20,000 a citizen.”"What we’re trying to learn is how to do it, how to achieve that level of energy renewable self-sufficiency that Samso and the community here have achieved,” said Frederica Gregory, Canadian ambassador to Denmark.

It has also helped draw attention to Denmark’s wind-power prowess. Jutland-based Vestas last week reported a 67% rise in its order backlog to over €7bn, and estimated wind power will account for at least 10% of global power output in 2020, from a little over 1% today.

This translates into annual growth of between 20% and 25% over the next 12 years.

“Using resources [that are] locally available and producing it in a way that is self-sufficient for the island while exporting green energy is something many nations would love to see,” said Slovenian ambassador Rudolf Gabrovec.