At a time when Jordan is working to fulfil international protocols on protecting the ozone layer, a specialised conference opened on Sunday.
Organisers said the conference's objective is to direct and expose Jordanian scholars to the level and depth of research conducted worldwide on energy saving and its relation to reduced environmental degradation.
Patronised by His Majesty King Abdullah, the International Conference of Energy Systems 2000 gathers 43 scholars, academics and researchers from 12 Arab and other countries.
Conference coordinator Mahmoud Hammad said that Ozone Depleting Potential (ODP) substances, which are produced by industrial activity, can be reduced when energy is well-managed.
“Papers dealing with energy — generation and consumption — and how to consume energy and use it with better efficiency will be presented in the conference,” Hammad told the Jordan Times.
Hammad, who is also chairman of the mechanical engineering faculty of the University of Jordan (UJ), said that the Global Warming Effect (GWE) and Green House Effect (GHE) are also subjects to be discussed in the four-day conference.
Participants will present cases and research studies from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, Palestine, the UK and the US.
Organised by the Jordan Armed Forces, the Petra Engineering Industries Company and other local firms, the conference showcases 10 papers by Jordanian researchers from various public and private universities. The papers will mainly discuss power generation and its impact on the environment.
Hammad said substances used in refrigeration industries, like the ozone-depleting gases — chloro-fluoro-carbons (CFCs) — are a subject atop the conference's agenda.
Hammad said that the widening gap between academia and industries is evidenced by the fact that the UJ has been one of the leading research centres on energy and CFC-related issues for about 10 years, while the government has only recently taken practical steps to actualise ozone-friendly measures.
“Academics have to wait a longer time until the [local] industry...is able to pick up research results,” Hammad said. In July, the General Corporation for Environment Protection received a multi-thousand dollar grant from the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) to convert local ozone-depleting industries into environmentally-friendly facilities.
This step was taken in pursuance of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer which was ratified by 29 nations in 1989. Jordan is one of 172 countries to have signed the protocol later.
This conference is one of many ecological gatherings slated for Amman, the largest of which being the World Conservation Union's (IUCN) Amman 2000 Congress to take place in October.
( Jordan Times )
By Ruba Saqr
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
