Fully cognizant of the grave threat of climate change impacts on the lives and security of future generations, Egypt was prompted to take many measures to combat climate, Minister of Environment Yassmine Fouad said.

For instance, Egypt issued the Environmental Sustainability Standards Guide for projects during the COVID-19 pandemic, and embraced green budgeting, Fouad added during a virtual session organized by the Atlantic Council Middle East on the margins of the pre-COP27 meetings that took place on 3-4 October in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa.

Egypt has also increased the share of green projects to 50 per cent, and adopted the 2050 National Climate Change Strategy (NCCS), which seeks to implement climate mitigation projects in cooperation with various sectors, Fouad pointed out during the session, which tackled “climate change economic and social impacts in the MENA region.”

She noted that these projects covered a wide range of industries, topped by tourism, transport, biodiversity, finance, healthcare, urban development, water and irrigation, energy, as well as oil and natural gas.

Egypt has also updated its Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement, to which the State is fully committed, the minister noted.

Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University Jeffrey D. Sachs, Deputy Chief of Staff and Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation Eric Pelofsky, and Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Mahmoud Mohieldin attended the session.

The Pre-COP meetings addressed the mechanisms for a timely execution of Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and national adaptation plans (NAPs), giving priority to the projects highlighted in both, especially in light of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that shows insufficient climate action plans.

Source: State Information Service Egypt