The Egyptian Ministry of Planning and Economic Development (MPED) issued a report on government initiatives and programs directed at environmental improvement and the transition to a green economy, with the plan for the current fiscal year 2022/23, the Cabinet announced.

Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, explained that with the global economy gradually recovering from the Coronavirus pandemic in 2021, the issue of climate change and environmental degradation has returned to the top of the list of thorny issues that require a unified global response in line with the sustainable development goals and the 2015 Paris Agreement.

COP26 held in Glasgow in 2021 called for taking the necessary measures to combat climate change, stressing the importance of the transition to a green economy that leads to economic growth and sustainable development without being accompanied by environmental degradation, El-Said noted.

El-Said added that in the context of Egypt’s hosting of COP27, the government is keen on adopting initiatives that support sustainable green growth, with investments ranging between 35% and 40% of the total investment in the year of the plan, compared to the current 30%, and to reach 50% by 2025 and 100% by 2030. Therefore, the plan adopts several programs aimed at addressing climate change and its negative repercussions on the national economic and ecological system.

With regard to the electricity and renewable energy sector, the initiatives put forward in the plan aim to raise the percentage of renewable energy to 22% of the total energy used in the year 2022/23, and then to 25% in the year 2024/25, and to approach the targets of 42% in 2035, through the expansion of solar projects and wind farms to generate electricity, such as the Benban solar power plant in Aswan.