President of the National Council for Women (NCW) Maya Morsi headed to New York to participate in the 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), held from 9 to 25 March.

Morsi spoke about Egypt’s efforts to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environment, and disaster risk-reduction policies and programmes.

Morsi said Egypt was among the countries most affected by climate change even though it accounts for only 0.6 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

She noted the acceleration of national efforts and policies to protect the environment, due to its importance in advancing sustainable development, and honour the commitment to decent standards of living, in addition to Egypt’s commitment to relevant international conventions and above all the stipulation of the Egyptian constitution that every individual has the right to live in a healthy environment. “The government is committed to adopting the necessary measures to preserve and rationally use its natural resources,” she explained.

Regarding the impact of climate change on women, particularly their health, food security, and decent living standards, Egypt has taken many serious measures to implement a sustainable development model, she noted.

Egypt established the National Council for Climate Change, headed by the prime minister, she said. Moreover, Egypt’s cabinet includes the Ministry of Environment, headed by a female. There is a gender unit in the egypt, economy. an equal opportunity unit in the Ministry of Environment working in cooperation with the NCW, she said, adding the council also launched an approach to integrate women’s needs into the environment sector and to regulate environmental sustainability standards.

The government has taken many initiatives to mitigate the effects of climate change, while taking into account women’s empowerment such as raising their awareness of rural initiatives and eco-friendly agriculture methods, holding environmental camps to train women to engage in eco-friendly industries, raising awareness of the sustainable management of floods and launching an initiative to educate women on greenhouse gas emissions reduction methods.

Morsi pointed to the Decent Life initiative, launched last year, which makes women and their needs one of its main pillars. The initiative takes into account environmental dimensions and sustainability criteria and dedicates LE800 billion to 58 million Egyptians, 50 per cent of whom are women.

She said Egypt’s perspective on women, the environment, and climate change is based on seven actionable areas, including promoting gender-sensitive perspectives within adaptation, mitigation and responses, strengthening women’s voices and having meaningful participation in environmental governance. It is also based on leveraging opportunities for women within the transition to a green economy and applying women-specific perspectives in financing climate action.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 24 March, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.