A sweeping glance at Egypt’s last ten years of environmental initiatives: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in July issued its first Green Growth Policy Review of Egypt (pdf), which provides a comprehensive overview of the country’s progress towards sustainable development and examines its green growth performance since 2015. The report probes into a wide range of areas, including greenhouse gas emissions reduction, renewable energy development, waste management, water conservation, and air quality.

GHG emissions are taking a downward turn: After more than doubling between 1990 and 2015, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been declining since 2017, reaching 300 mn tons in 2020 compared to 325 mn tons in 2015. Our annual emissions per capita amounted to 2.8 tons in 2020 — less than half the world average of 6.3 tons. This progress is attributed to efficiency gains in the energy sector and recent developments in renewable energy projects.

Energy efficiency targets are progressing: The country developed the Integrated Sustainable Energy Strategy 2035 to reduce energy demand by 18% by 2035. The strategy aims to upgrade generation and transmission infrastructure with new technologies such as installing 20 mn smart meters within only ten years. The government began establishing energy efficiency units in ministries with plans in the works for a digitalised, sector-wide monitoring system. The petroleum sector also developed the Energy Efficiency Strategy 2022-35 — a first — aiming to achieve 10% of energy savings by 2027.

Clean energy transition is taking place gradually: Egypt adheres to the World Bank’s Zero Routing Flaring Initiative and the Global Methane Pledge to reduce methane by 30% by 2030.

Energy diversification is the name of the game: Our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) were updated in 2023 to increase the contribution of renewables to 42% of the energy production by 2030 instead of 2035. Diversification of the country’s energy mix is a top priority of the government, with plans to complete the country’s first nuclear plant in 2030 in El Daaba — projected to cover 3% of the country’s power generation. Renewable energy projects covered 6% of the energy mix in 2021.

EVs are also set to play an important part in the country’s green transition: The government set an electric mobility strategy in 2019 to increase the market share of private EVs to 50% by 2040. A plan was also announced to ban new sales of internal combustion engine vehicles beginning by 2040. Various proposed EV manufacturing projects have been discussed with foreign companies and the government is keen to support these efforts with government subsidies that could potentially support one third of local production costs.

Improving waste management is part of the plan: The country has set a target to reduce landfilled waste to 20% by 2030. There are also plans to develop solid waste management infrastructure, increasing collected waste from 55% to 95% between 2022 and 2025. Additionally, the government also wants to pursue waste-to-energy projects and turn 20% of collected waste into energy by 2026.

Water management is a top priority: The government is encouraging farmers to switch to modern irrigation systems, with canals in the Delta being rehabilitated to reduce water loss. Water pollution is also important to the government, which has tightened the penalty for factories whose waste discharge leads to the pollution of waterways. The portion of treated wastewater grew from 50% to 74% between 2015 and 2022.

Marine protection is getting strategic attention: Egypt is planning to declare the entire coral reef habitat of the Red Sea as protected areas through a prime ministerial decree in the summer of 2024, according to the report. Out of the EGP 500 mn raised through tickets to enter the country’s protected areas in 2023, 75% of it was directed to environmental protection programs.

Progress has been made on the air pollution front: The country met its set target for 2020 by reducing PM10 emissions by 15% compared to 2015 levels in Cairo. The annual average concentration of PM2.5 also decreased over the past decade and went below the national limit value of 50 µg/m3 in 2022.

Your top green economy stories for the week:

  • Egypt’s first construction and demolition waste recycling project is in the works, after ZeroCarbon inked a partnership with the New Urban Communities Authority for a project, whose first phase will kick off in New Cairo’s Beit Al Watan (Statement)
  • Is Hurghada finally getting its 20 MW solar power plant? Mitsubishi and another undisclosed firm were selected to set up a EUR 90 mn, 20 MW solar power plant in Hurghada, local media reported. The consortium may decide on a local partner to take on the design and construct of the project as well as operate and maintain it for two years.
  • ACWA Power’s green hydrogen megaproject now has a due date for its first phase: Saudi renewable energy developer ACWA Power expects to complete the first, USD 4 bn portion of its green hydrogen project in the Suez Canal Economic Zone by 4Q 2028.
Tags: