Fouad – who is also the ministerial coordinator and envoy of the COP27 – said that the EU grant is a part of the third phase funding of the Environmental Pollution Abatement Project (EPAP) of total budget of 145 billion euros, according to a statement by the ministry

EPAP third phase’s is currently under implementation and provides a mixture of soft loans and grants to encourage public and private industrial enterprises to invest in pollution abatement technologies.

The minister said that EPAP is among the ministry’s largest and most important initiatives that aim to enhance performance of the national industry and achieve compliance with the environmental needs and regulations, in addition to reduce energy and resources consumption to achieve sustainable development ultimately.

She added that the financial grants aimed to transform industrial facilities to the green economy and limit carbon emissions in order to limit the impact of climate change.

The project’s second phase started in 2007 and aimed to decrease pollution in project hot spots in order to improve local and global environmental conditions, as Egypt is suffering from various kinds of pollution.

EPAP is implementing in a partnership between the EU and the European Investment Bank (EIB), French Development Agency and Germany’s KfW Development Bank.

The statement said that the signing came amid the cooperation framework between Egypt’s Ministry of Environment and EU regarding field of protecting environment and supporting the Egyptian Industry.

Fouad said that the initiative is offering technical support to serious companies to adapt the environmental regulations, plus introducing soft loans and grants to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) up to 30 percent from the total budget of the company’s implemented project.

She added that the EPAP is currently preparing and implementing environmentally friendly and energy efficiency projects of over 200 million euros to transform industry to green economy.

The environment minister asserted that all the different industrial facilities nationwide could benefit from the offered financial grant, noting that participated industrial facilities in EPAP will obtain a number of outcomes including reducing carbon emissions, achieve financial savings, and enhance productivity and competency.

Egypt is paying efforts to limit the impact of climate change and implementing a number of sustainable projects in various fields, as it announced in May the National Strategy for Climate Change 2050.

This comes in line with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly inspections to sustainable projects implemented in the Red Sea city of Sharm El-Sheikh, COP27 host city.