File: Egypt's Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad (photo courtesy of the Ministry of Environment)
Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad said the ministry has been working on developing a general framework for the national strategy for climate change to incorporate it into the sectoral labor training plans of other ministries.
In a report released Monday, Fouad gave an overview of the ministry's achievements over the past two years, including extended efforts and climate change projects undertaken by the ministry since 2018 to mitigate the negative effects of climate change, whether at the national or global levels.
Prominent among these efforts is the completion of a three-phase project to develop an interactive map for Egypt's vulnerability to climate change, which is being carried out in cooperation with the Egyptian Meteorological Authority (EMA) and the National Water Research Center (NWRC) of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, the minister said.
The project aims to assist decision-makers in identifying areas vulnerable to climate change in such a manner that could affect the state's development projects, taking measures necessary to deal with this risk and facilitating access to climate change adaptation funds offered by relevant international bodies, Fouad pointed out.
Other projects include one funded by the Green Climate Fund to "Enhance Climate Change Adaptation in the North Coast and Nile Delta Regions," in cooperation with the irrigation ministry, and the "Renewable Energy Financing Framework" project that will support Egypt in meeting its target of 20% renewable energy generation by 2022.
Fouad also shed light on the “Transforming Financial Systems for Climate in Egypt” project, implemented in collaboration with the French Development Agency (AFD) to provide technical support to small and medium-sized businesses at a cost of €150 million.
The report also highlighted Egypt's contributions to international climate negotiations, including its co-chairmanship of a ministerial high-level dialogue on climate finance during the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) hosted by Poland in December 2018.
Egypt also co-led the "Resilience and Adaptation Coalition" at the 2019 Climate Change Summit in September 2019 with the UK, the minister pointed out.
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