Just a few days ahead of the official inauguration of the environmental conference COP27 in Egypt, the National Initiative for Green and Smart Projects (NIGSP) will announce 18 projects which will receive awards for their innovative work designed to create economic opportunities with IT resources and with an eye on climate change worries.
The projects, to be announced Thursday 3 November in Cairo, were chosen from over 6,000 introduced in August this year. A short list was announced in October after a thorough review by a cross-sectoral NIGSP committee that includes members of concerned government bodies and is chaired by Mahmoud Mohieldine, a prominent expert on environment and sustainable economy.
“This is just phase one of the work we are set to do,” Hesham Badr, NIGSP coordinator, said.
“And it was really impressive and promising to see this volume of projects, from big to medium and small scale and even some non-profit initiatives that are working with an eye on maximising the use of smart solutions and also on accommodating the requirement of environment awareness.
He said the Egyptian government is well aware that the future is a green and smart economy and is determined to be there at the forefront. “This is what we have our eyes on and this is precisely where we want to expand,” Badr argued.
“This is what we already have committed to in the Egypt 2030 Vision and also in the National Climate Change Strategy 2050. So, yes, we are working and hoping for a bigger and more vibrant economy – but not just any economy. We want to be green and smart because this is the future and this is where we are heading,” he said.
The Egypt 2030 Vision is a strategy with social, economic and environmental objectives that aims to improve the quality of life for all Egyptians, and promote equality and inclusion. To get there it targets a robust economy with room for innovation and a sustainable environment. Hayah Karima (A Decent Life) and the New Administrative Capital are parts of this vision. The National Climate Change Strategy 2050 is a twin scheme that is specifically designed to support a stronger and greener Egyptian economy with an eye on renewable energy, transportation, agriculture and water resources.
“So, the NIGSP is really central to these mega and highly ambitious visions that are designed to give Egypt a better future. This is why this initiative is launched under the auspices of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi – so it is not just a competition to award prizes for innovative projects; it is much bigger.It is about the actual implementation of the strategies that this country has been adopting,” Badr said. “It is one of the practical steps that Egypt has been taking to honour its choice, not just commitment, of opting for sustainable development and environment sensibility,” he added.
“There is also a very significant fact here: for the first time ever we are getting around having a comprehensive mapping of the green and smart projects currently being operated all across the country,” he explained. “We have a website for the NIGSP where all the projects identified are marked and slotted according to their geographic location,” he added.
This “unprecedented mapping”, Badr said, is also useful for donors who wish to reach out to promising projects that are worth supporting, for investors who wish to partner or merge with other investors, and to government bodies who need to be aware of the exact scope of such projects for planning and finance purposes. “Actually, this is what makes joining the NISGP purposeful for all applicants – those who would qualify for awards and others – because by being out there on our website they become visible and eligible for possible funding or possible technical support,” he added.
However, Badr noted that to get on the NIGSP list, applicants need to have operating projects, “not just a proposal or an idea for a project. It has to be something that is actual and working and creating job opportunities. This is what makes the NIGSP a truly leading initiative,” he said.
According to Badr, some of the projects on the short list include schemes that are fully or partially dependent on renewable energy and are one way or the other managed through smart technology solutions. They are also projects with a firm recycling awareness, financial sustainability and gender sensibility “because we are committed in our work to create a fair share for women. They are all projects that meet social, economic and environmental requirements as specified in the national strategies that we are committed to,” he added.
“So, for example, we have seen projects that work on generating green hydrogen from irrigation sewage, projects that are dedicated to the recycling of agricultural waste and others that work on water recycling for agricultural purposes,” he said. “These are all very innovative projects with efficient budgets and with potential for expansion,” he added.
According to Badr the projects that will be demonstrated at COP27 “are part of showing the Egyptian solution to the disturbing consequences of climate change”.
Badr stressed that this was not a one year, one-off scheme. The NIGSP is a long-term scheme, he said. “What we have since we put out the call for applications in August this year was the first phase. We are going to continue our work and we will keep selecting projects with potential to take them next year to COP28 in the UAE and the year after to COP29 in Australia and so on,” he said.
“What we are working on, as a government, in cooperation with the private sector and civil society, is to promote the concept of innovation in a green and smart economy to make sure that the over 6,000 projects that were listed this year will more than double or triple by next year.”
A version of this article appears in print in the 3 November, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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