UNHCR in Jordan shifts gear to reduce its carbon footprint

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, nearly doubled its fleet of electric vehicles (e-vehicles) in Jordan in a move to reduce its own carbon footprint. The seven brand-new Skywell LV2 and LV3 models will increase the number of e-vehicles to 16 and boost the share of e-vehicles in its fleet to 42 per cent. Jordan continues to be UNHCR’s only operation in the Middle East to run e-vehicles.
This initiative is part of a deliberate strategy that protects the environment in Jordan, but also cuts avoidable costs at a time of plummeting donor funding.

While the e-vehicles take UNHCR protection and assistance staff to the towns, villages and camps where refugees live across Jordan, they will bring down the emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) by 55 tons a year. Compared to a traditional gasoline-powered car, a new e-vehicle will save over 70 per cent of carbon emissions, and 65 to 75 per cent of energy costs. With this, the organization aims to reduce the toll its vital humanitarian work in Jordan takes on the environment. “This is another step of greening the blue”, explains Ali Abu-Hanish, UNHCR’s Assistant Representative Administration.

“Rolling out e-vehicles is not only good for the planet, but also for the wallet”, says Abu-Hanish hinting at savings of some $ 36,000 per year in fuel and maintenance that come with renting the e-vehicles from UNHCR’s Global Fleet park. The e-vehicles will replace 12 traditional 4WD cars that are taken off Jordan’s roads, as part of rationalization, and sold through an auction organized by its Global Fleet Management. This way, UNHCR typically recovers two thirds of its investment.

UNHCR new electric cars, Skywell LV2 and LV3 . © UNHCR/Batool Ghaith

This is not the first move by UNHCR in Jordan that benefits both the environment and the efficiency of its programme. As the national electricity grid is heavily reliant on gas-fueled power plants, UNHCR, together with its partners such as the Saudi Fund for Development, the IKEA Foundation and the German Development Bank KfW, soon sought a more sustainable and cheaper source for the two big refugee camps the Agency co-manages, Azraq and Zaatari. And it found one: – the sun. UNHCR equipped each camp with a solar power plant thanks to funding from these partners. Azraq prides itself of having the first ever solar plant in a refugee camp, Zaatari is powered by the world’s largest solar plant in a refugee camp. They used to reduce the need for electricity from the grid by some 70 per cent.

The solar power plant in Zaatari camp.© UNHCR/Yousef Alhariri

This still left an electricity need for refugee households and businesses in the camps of about 30 per cent that had to come from the national grid and was largely produced in gas-fueled power plants heating the atmosphere. “We wanted and needed to change that,” says UNHCR’s Assistant Representative Operations, Marina Aksakalova, “because climate change affects everybody, and more importantly – our children and grand-children.”

This is how UNHCR, together with its German partners, came to broker a multi-stakeholder agreement, between electricity companies and the Ministry of Health and UNHCR, among others, last year: The Green Deal for Jordan secures the allocation of additional renewable energy to the two refugee camps in Azraq and Zaatari from a new huge 46 MWp solar plant in the South of the Jordanian capital Amman. The German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, also known as BMZ, had commissioned the German Development Bank KfW to finance the project which is owned by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. “For Germany, it was essential that Jordanians, too, benefit from the Green Deal”, explains KfW’s Country Director in Jordan, Mark Schwiete, “the agreement also foresees that the plant powers public clinics, and health facilities around the country”. This includes clinics in Irbid, Mafraq and Amman that see many refugee patients.

Azraq Camp’s Solar Plant. ©UNHCR/Osama Sabbah

The clean solar power from South Amman complements the two solar power plants in the refugee camps. With the Green Deal, the two camps, temporary homes for some 120,000 Syrian refugees, run nearly exclusively on solar power now which will reduce carbon emissions by some 15,000 tons of CO2 per year. In exchange, UNHCR covers operational costs and maintenance for the South Amman solar plant, among other items. These costs for UNHCR are far below those for the electricity previously purchased from the grid. Zaatari’s electricity bill alone amounted to US$ 400,000 to 500,000 in an average month.

The Green Deal saved UNHCR $3.7 million in 2023 already, and more savings are anticipated in 2024. But the main beneficiaries of the Green Deal will be refugees in Azraq and Zaatari. In their households they will be able to run their basic appliances in an eco-friendly way – an iron, a little fridge, a fan in summer, a heater in winter and light bulbs that allow children to study even after dark. The streetlights in the camps that reduce protection risks at night will also be powered by up to 100 per cent solar energy.

UNHCR’s moves to reduce its carbon footprint are milestones in implementing the GlobalCompact on Refugees which aims at easing the pressure on host countries. “There is no time for complacency”, warns UNHCR’s Aksakalova, “we need to reduce the environmental footprint of refugee camps further and support equitable access to energy.”

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