Environment min. opens Green Economy Forum.. stresses transformation to green economy “a must”

29 / 09 / 2019

• conferences
• news

The Transformation Strategies Toward Green Economy Forum opened in Cairo on Sunday under the patronage of the Environment Ministry, Communications and IT Ministry and Trade and Industry Ministry.

During the inauguration ceremony, Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad underlined that “transformation to green economy is a must” to maintain life on earth, noting that this became an international trend.

She said the world is striving to stop environmental deterioration which reached an unprecedented level, citing the dwindling natural resources, climate change, desertification and water and food security crises.

She noted that Egypt – through the Environment Ministry – is cooperating with all the parties concerned to cater for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030, noting that the environmental dimension has become pivotal in all development and economic sectors.

She noted that energy, waste and natural protectorates topped the Egyptian environmental agenda, noting that the ministry is working on amending environment-related laws to be commensurate with the Egyptians’ ambitions.

She noted that Egypt succeeded in changing the global climate change agenda by including adaptation as a priority at the 2019 Climate Summit, and convinced 107 countries to sign the political declaration presented by Egypt in this regard. About 73 international organizations also joined the declaration.

This crowned Egypt’s efforts to accelerate development transformation in all levels, she said.

She noted that Egypt as a co-chair of the Adaptation Alliance in partnership with the UK and the chair of  the Convention on Biological Diversity is doing its best to place adaptation at the top of climate action agenda.

Egypt has highlighted in several gatherings and conferences the relationship between biodiversity and climate change to encourage channeling funds to serve this issue, Fouad said.

She said that investment in human capital and natural resources is vital in order to realize sustainable development, noting that this economic trend takes into consideration the social dimension through taking care of poor and marginalized social strata in addition to supporting small and medium sized enterprises.

Fouad also reviewed means of getting youths to join environmental action and putting into effect their innovative ideas, projects and visions vis-à-vis climate change and biological diversity.

She added that the ministry is seeking to raise awareness among youths and children about the environment and the importance of protecting the Ozone layer, asserting the importance of getting these issues to be part of educational curricula as well as university graduation projects.

Meanwhile, Board Chairman of CSR Arabia Hassan Moustafa said his company seeks to engage in partnerships in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and adopt up-to-date strategies for transformation toward green economy.

Addressing the forum, Hassan said “transformation toward green economic became a must in view of the challenges besetting the world, especially developing nations.”

Hassan referred to poverty and diseases as key challenges facing developing countries.

Hassan said “countries seeking to achieve sustainability must adopt green economy to ensure attaining sustainability in a realistic way.”

He said “Egypt is one of the pioneering countries that adopted Sustainable Development Goals and this is quite clear in its national projects, particularly in the fields of renewable energy, food security and transportation networks as well as sustainable cities like Alamein and the New Administrative Capital.”

Hassan stressed that this is an important stride for achieving sustainable development, adding that the coming generations will reap the fruits of this.

For his part, National Renewable Energy Authority Chairman Mohamed El Khayyat said the 32 projects of the Benban Solar Plant – that will be the biggest in the world  – will all be linked next week.

About 11 institutions cooperated in this project, he said, noting that the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company manufactured needed power transformers and the private sector injected up to dlrs 2.2 billion dollars.

The $3.5 billion project, located in Aswan’s village of Benban, has a total capacity of 1.8 gigawatts. Benban’s solar power project is considered to be one of the largest solar generation facilities in the world. The project’s purpose is to contribute to Egypt’s energy self-sufficiency.

Khayyat also noted that Egypt is setting up the largest wind farm in Gabal El Zeit area on the Red Sea coast.

The three-stage project is the biggest wind complex in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region with total installed capacity of 580 MW.

The first stage of the project – which was implemented in tandem with the private sector – will go online in October. The first stage will produce about 250 megawatts, Khayyat said.

He noted that the reforms carried out by the government in the energy sector have encouraged the private sector to pump investments.

He added that the Egyptian legislations have also incentivized businessmen to invest in these projects which are meant to generate up to 20 percent of Egypt’s electricity via new and renewable energy resources by 2022 and double this percentage by 2035.

Meanwhile, Hussein Abaza, a senior advisor at the Environment Ministry, said moving ahead toward sustainable development and green economy needs adopting a new way of thinking as well as cooperation among all the parties concerned and all the ministries.

Abaza said sustainable development also needs to build cities in an untraditional way as well as pursuing sustainable environmental solutions at low cost.

For his part, CEO of Madkour Group, Moustafa Amin Madkour, said his company seeks to contribute to new and renewable energy sector in order to supersede traditional energy resources, noting that climate change had prompted the whole world to depend on renewable energy.

He expounded that global warming is posing danger on people’s life, therefore depending on clean energy is an exigency.

He noted that burning traditional kinds of fuel, including natural gas, coal and diesel fuel, ups greenhouse gas emissions, highlighting that Egypt enjoys  high solar energy potential.

The forum came in an important timing as it followed the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York  which aimed  to advance climate action for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to prevent global temperature from rising by more than 1.5 degrees.

A galaxy of politicians and businessmen attended the event alongside youths and representatives from international organizations and civil societies.