In a session dubbed ‘From Glasgow to Sharm El Sheikh: Combating Climate Change’, El-Sisi said that the state promptly addressed the issue five years ago by starting partnerships to manufacture electric vehicles in the country.
A locally made electric vehicle will be launched in 2023, he said, adding that Egypt has responded quickly to face global warming despite of its low carbon emissions through a number of initiatives.
“Despite of this, we are vigilant about facing it and we have even found opportunities [to develop] because of the issue,” he said, in reference to the several initiatives spearheaded by the state to deal with the impact of climate change.
The initiatives include scrapping old and rickety cars and replacing them with new ones running on natural gas and lining canals for EGP 80 billion under the Decent Life Presidential Initiative at the country’s poorest villages.
The president’s statements come a few weeks after Egypt asked the representatives of US multinational automotive giant General Motors (GM) and Al-Mansour Automotive Company to submit a comprehensive study of their plans to manufacture electronic vehicles locally, as they plan to launch electric, eco-friendly vehicles in the country in 2022.
Egypt seeks to localise these environment-friendly cars, reduce dependence on fuels, and keep pace with global progress in the automobile industry.
In December, Egypt’s military production minister said the mass production of the Egyptian-Emirati bi-fuel pickup vehicles will begin by the end of the first half of 2022.
Last summer, Egypt inaugurated its first integrated fuel station in Cairo’s Abbasiya district, which will serve vehicles running on natural gas, gasoline, and electricity, with plans to set up a network of 3,000 electrical-charging stations in the near future.
El-Sisi said that the extent of pollution in lakes nationwide for a hundred years has not been addressed by officials, and yet the state has decided to line canals four years ago.
This comes under the state’s efforts to face climate change and reduce the country’s carbon footprint.
Speaking in the forum virtually, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry said that Egypt and Africa will play a critical role in meeting goals related to transitioning to new energy systems.
“The biggest challenge we all face right now is to get our systems, our government systems, and the private sector joined with it, to actually move fast enough. And right now, we’re not,” Kerry said, stressing the need for youths to exert pressure on their country’s governments to solve the issue.
Furthermore, Kerry said that millions of job opportunities can be created through new energy systems, assuring that “this is not a transformation that we should be scared of.”
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