Carbon dioxide sale tender awarded to US firm
Jordan Times
August 3, 2007
By Hana Namrouqa
AMMAN -- The Cabinet last week approved awarding a tender for the sale of carbon
dioxide generated from the Rihab electricity generating plant in Mafraq to a US
company.
The project is expected to generate almost JD11 million annually over the next
five years, with the price per tonne at JD8.6 euros.
"Selling the carbon dioxide is part of the ministry's clean development
mechanism seeking to protect the environment while funding the environment
sector to undertake future environment-friendly projects," Minister of
Environment Khalid Irani said.
Following Jordan's signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 and the conclusion of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the
Kingdom benefited from the protocol's clean development mechanism, which allows
industrialised countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment to invest in
emission-reducing projects in developing countries.
The UNFCCC seeks to come up with plans to reduce global warming and to cope with
whatever temperature increases are inevitable.
Previous projects targeting reduction of greenhouse gases include the Greater
Amman Municipality's biogas project at the Ruseifeh landfill, the Aqaba Thermal
Station and the Samra Electric Power Generating Company, which generates up to
24 per cent of the country's electricity needs by using heat produced from
electricity-generation machines.
Irani said the national committee for the clean development mechanism is drawing
up plans for future projects in the same field.
He added that a total of 15 per cent of revenues generated from sales of carbon
dioxide will be allocated to the environment protection fund, which will help
the ministry set up environment-friendly projects and improve the country's
environment.