What is the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MoPMR) doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
Egypt is working, through a national strategy, to confront climate change and reduce emissions. Decarbonization and transition to low-carbon energy sources are core elements of this strategy. Hence comes the role of MoPMR to support this strategy through several projects and initiatives.
The ministry’s efforts to support emissions reduction are based on 6 main pillars including, gas as the fuel of choice, energy efficiency, decarbonization, green petrochemicals, and hydrogen.
In this respect, several projects were implemented along these pillars that collectively resulted in annual savings of 1.4 million tons of CO2.
The ministry will certainly continue working to execute specific projects to realize its vision and strategy for emission reduction beyond COP27.
Egypt is going to be the voice of Africa during the COP27, in your opinion how is this important for the African continent?
We are a few weeks away from COP 27, which Egypt is hosting on behalf of the African continent, carrying and expressing the voices of the African countries, their rights, and aspirations for sustainable inclusive socio-economic development and well-being for all.
Although the African continent is not responsible for the climate change crisis, it is facing its most negative impacts. Nevertheless, the continent is considered a model for serious climate action, as much as its capabilities and the support that it receives allow.
Despite being blessed with a wealth of natural resources and significant renewable energy potential, the African continent is lagging in economic development and welfare, and over 600 million citizens suffer from energy poverty.
Accordingly, Egypt is leading efforts to develop an African Energy initiative to be launched during COP27 with due consideration to the continent’s differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities.
What will be the significance of the Decarbonization Day for the participants at COP 27?
This day will highlight efforts and showcase local, regional and global success of decarbonization in the oil and gas sector and hard-to-abate industries. The day’s events will feature progress, best practices, and policy actions and inspire further action for accelerating decarbonization with the engagement of all stakeholders, including the oil & gas global industry. The EMGF decarbonization initiative will also be announced during the day, which is a leading model for regional cooperation across countries to drive further decarbonization of the natural gas resources in the region.
How significant is the role of the EMGF in global decarbonization efforts?
Egypt has always believed in the benefit of cooperation, and always aspired for collaboration instead of competition for the welfare of the whole region.
The East Mediterranean region has always played a prominent role in the Gas industry, we recognize the vast resource prospects and opportunities of the East-Med basin and we were also aware of the common energy challenges and interests among the East Mediterranean countries.
Within this context, EMGF was established as an intergovernmental organization with the purpose of “Cooperating for a Sustainable Future”. Since its inception, the EMGF succeeded in attracting worldwide attention in a short time and succeeded to shift the perception around Energy to be a catalyst for peace and flourishment.
Stemming from EMGF’s commitment to play a pivotal role to coordinate and accompany Member Countries toward a regional low-carbon natural gas, the EMGF developed a leading decarbonization initiative that will be announced at COP27 during the decarbonization day.
