The global cleantech industry is booming, but Egypt risks getting left behind if it doesn’t act — and fast. The sector is “one of the most competitive and strategically funded industries worldwide,” which has pushed counties in the region to focus on bolstering their cleantech sectors with better regulation, making capital available, and creating innovation hubs, according to the Planning and International Development Ministry and Entlaq Holding’s Cleantech and Energy in Egypt 2025 report. But the question is, what is Egypt doing? And is it enough?

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Cleantech? Cleantech — or clean technology — is a broad term for any technology, product, or service that improves environmental sustainability. Its main goal is to reduce negative environmental impacts, such as pollution and waste, while also making the use of natural resources more efficient. Cleantech isn’t just about renewable energy, it also includes innovations — big and small — in sectors like transportation, water management, waste and recycling, agriculture, and manufacturing. The key idea behind it is to create solutions that are not only better for the planet, but also offer a competitive advantage through better performance or lower costs.

There’s few reasons why Egypt couldn’t be a leader in the field, argues the report.

Unlike other nations that have made more progress on the cleantech front, Egypt has huge renewables potential, an educated and skilled workforce, a promising startup sector, and its geographic position connecting Asia, Africa, and Europe.

BY THE NUMBERS- Infrastructure finance in the Middle East and Africa reached USD 152.3 bn in 2024, with clean energy projects alone attracting more than USD 21.5 bn, according to the report.

SO, WHAT ARE THE MAIN ROADBLOCKS?

Fragmented regulations are slowing growth: Egypt lacks a unified legal framework for cleantech ventures and entrepreneurs face licensing bottlenecks, slow industrial registration, and inconsistent net metering rules, which delay projects and raise costs, according to the report. While some coordination has improved — ministries now meet more often and regulators have clearer roles — projects still get stuck between agencies. By comparison, Saudi Arabia and Morocco have clearer, startup-friendly frameworks that make it easier to launch and grow.

Financing is also a major barrier: Egypt remains underrepresented in regional green finance flows, and the funding that is available often misses women-led or gender-diverse startups, the report argues. While the country has made some progress — like a USD 750 mn sovereign green bond in 2020 — there is still no green bank, no cleantech-specific credit guarantee system, and few blended finance or de-risking tools. SME lending for renewable projects accounts for less than 5% of all business credit.

Infrastructure gaps are making scaling difficult: Testing labs, grid integration facilities, and industrial zones designed for energy and water technology are scarce. Grid constraints, especially in transmission and load management, make it harder to integrate variable renewable energy sources and scale decentralized systems. Local manufacturing capacity in green technology is also limited, with most solar, wind, and storage components imported. In contrast, shared infrastructure overseas — like India’s Clean Energy Center — has helped entrepreneurs commercialize products faster. Without similar facilities, Egypt’s innovators face higher costs and longer timelines.

Adoption is slow in both the public and private sectors: Consumers and government agencies have been slow to adopt cleantech solutions, constrained by limited awareness, a lack of demonstration projects, and weak incentives in public tenders. That keeps solutions small and discourages private investors. The innovation ecosystem also faces commercialization bottlenecks, with fewer than 300 green patents filed in the past five years, and under 10% reaching the market — far behind India’s 2.3k cleantech patents in just last year alone.

Egypt’s advantages remain underused: The country has a strong, but underutilized, technical workforce, with over 200k STEM-educated graduates — of which, only 7% enter climate-related fields. Egypt has also emerged as Africa’s most ambitious hydrogen developer, with an announced pipeline of 18 mn tons per annum — the highest on the continent — spread across 38 MoUs and has impressive solar and wind projects. However, most of its hydrogen projects remain at the pre-commercial stage, with no final investment decisions secured. Egypt ranked 75th out of 120 countries on the World Economic Forum’s Energy Transition Index in 2024, highlighting implementation gaps that, without quicker permitting, better manufacturing incentives, and grid upgrades, could see it lose ground to faster-moving countries. By comparison, Morocco has built its own renewable manufacturing base and gender-inclusive training, South Africa leads in blended finance and SME procurement, and India has turned cleantech into both an industrial strategy and an export engine.

AND HOW SHOULD WE ADDRESS THIS?

Cleantech-specific legislation is a must: A single streamlined legal framework for cleantech is essential to reduce regulatory overlaps, provide a single predictable pathway for startups to launch and grow, and improve investor confidence, argues the report.

Targeted incentive schemes for energy and water innovation: Launching targeted incentive schemes for energy and water innovation would encourage entrepreneurs to focus on the areas where Egypt faces its most pressing challenges. Financial and non-financial incentives could stimulate pilot projects, make it easier for companies to scale solutions, and attract local and foreign investment to key problem areas.

Supporting public sector demand with procurement changes: Reforming public procurement to include cleantech would give startups early access to reliable demand. Government contracts could help de-risk new technologies, demonstrate their value in practice, and build trust among private-sector customers, speeding up adoption across industries.

Getting funds to a diverse set of early startups: Directing more capital to diverse early-stage innovators would help address one of the ecosystem’s most persistent gaps. Ensuring that funding reaches underrepresented founders, particularly women, would broaden the talent pipeline and make the sector more resilient, while increasing the likelihood of discovering high-impact solutions.

Using successful models overseas as a base to build on: Benchmarking Egypt’s policies and programs against global best practices would help the country avoid missteps and accelerate learning. By studying what has worked elsewhere, Egypt could focus its resources on proven models and adapt them to its own market, shortening the path to a competitive, scalable cleantech sector.

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