Jordan

LOCATED IN THE Middle East, the Kingdom of Jordan has a land area of 45,495 sq. mi. (89,342 sq. km.), a population of 5,924,000 (2006 est.), and a population density of 166 people per sq. mi. (64 people per sq. km.). Only 4 percent of the land is agricultural, with a further 9 percent used as meadow or pasture, mainly for the grazing of sheep and goats. There is also a small forestry sector in Jordan. For electricity production, 99.4 percent comes from fossil fuels, with only 0.6 percent from hydropower.

The high level of fossil fuel for electricity has contributed to a relatively high level of carbon dioxide emissions, making up 36 percent of total carbon dioxide emissions. These have been relatively stable, at 3.1 metric tons per person in 1990, rising slowly to 3.2 metric tons in 2003.

Other energy industries contribute to another 5 percent of emissions, with manufacturing and construction making up 14 percent, and residential use another 12 percent. Automobiles are heavily used in Jordan, which does not have an effective system of public transport outside of Amman and Irbid (where the suburbs are well-serviced), 23 percent of the country's carbon dioxide emissions come from transportation. Liquid fuels make up 91 percent of emissions by source, and of the remainder, 4 percent come from gaseous fuels, and 5 percent from the manufacture of cement.

The Jordanian government ratified the Vienna Convention in 1989, and took part in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change signed in Rio de Janeiro in May 1992, which they ratified in 1993. It accepted the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on January 17, 2003, which went into effect on February 16, 2005.