The last IPCC report puts the contribution made by the
solid waste and wastewater management sector to global
GHG emissions at 2.7%, which might appear to be comparatively
low compared to for example the energy sector.But in fact, improved waste management can contribute indirectly to significantly larger GHG emissions
reductions. In the year 2000, GHG emissions to the atmosphere
from the waste sector totaled 2713 Gg CO2-eq
or 13.5% of Jordan’s total GHG emissions. This can be
compared with the energy sector contribution of around
14911 Gg CO2-eq, or 74.0% of the total contribution from
Jordan. [13] Giegrich and Vogt [14] predicted that developing
countries could reduce their GHG emissions by
around 5% merely by adopting municipal waste management
systems using current technologies. Moreover,
including other waste types, especially waste containing
high levels of biodegradable organic matter, the reducetion
of GHG emissions in these countries could be doubled.
GHG emissions from waste are directly affected by
numerous policy and regulatory strategies that encourage
energy recovery from waste, restrict choices for ultimate
waste disposal, promote waste recycling and re-use, and
encourage waste minimization. In developing countries,
major policies are aimed at restricting the uncontrolled
dumping of waste. Still, these policies don’t integrate
with climate policies. However, estimation the costs of
reducing GHG emissions tend to vary a lot across different
models and studies. Also, it is clear that modeling
work in the field of climate policy has its limitation, and
there is need for additional research. One of most important
limitations of climate policy modeling concerns the
long-term potential for technological progress and the
evolution of new technological ways [15].