Egypt's Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad has inaugurated the first meeting of the Environmental and Climate Policy Committee, a new body tasked with guiding the country's green transition. The committee, which convened Saturday, brings together key ministries to discuss its objectives and set responsibilities. Attendees included Ali Abo Sena, CEO of the Environmental Affairs Agency, Raouf Saad, the Minister's Advisor on Multilateral Agreements, Sherine Fekry, Assistant Minister for Environmental Policies, Khaled Qasem, Assistant Minister of Local Development, and representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Planning and Economic Development, International Cooperation, Finance, Local Development, Investment, Electricity and Energy, Petroleum, and Industry. Fouad outlined the committee's purpose as a platform to clarify its objectives, identify tasks, and facilitate Egypt's green transition. She highlighted the need for structural reforms across political, economic, and social spheres, explaining how the Ministry of Environment had initially partnered with the Ministry of International Cooperation and the World Bank on climate change initiatives but subsequently broadened its collaborations with other ministries on various files, including mitigation, carbon reduction, and issues related to the electricity and petroleum sectors. This collaborative approach, she stressed, underscores the need for a unified position on matters relating to Egypt's climate change strategy, national contributions, and negotiating stance. Fouad further emphasized the joint efforts invested in preparing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report on evaluating and reviewing green growth policies. The report developed collaboratively with relevant ministries over 18 months, serves as a reference for formulating policies in Egypt, encompassing not just climate change but broader environmental issues. Fouad highlighted the report's inclusion of general policy measures for all sectors within Egypt and emphasized that its recommendations were not produced in isolation but involved contributions from relevant ministries, experts, and civil society organisations. Fouad praised the OECD report's objective scientific approach and the numerous recommendations, some positive, others requiring further study, and others with alternatives aligned with Egypt's economic and social context. Fouad underscored that the Environmental Policy Committee is built upon coordination for the green transition pathway outlined in the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development's strategy, facilitating collaboration with relevant organizations. The goal, she emphasized, is to achieve national ownership, consistency, and integration. She stressed the importance of aligning the committee's efforts with national plans, particularly the updated national contribution plans and climate change strategy, to facilitate international financing. She explained that the Ministry of Environment intentionally designed the report's outputs as a matrix to simplify coordination among committee members. She underlined the need to assess the feasibility of the OECD report's recommendations, including their implementation phases and timelines. She reaffirmed that the committee's remit encompasses environmental and climate issues in collaboration with all state services and production entities. Fouad also alluded to the "NWFE" program and its potential for implementation in line with the OECD report's recommendations. She explained that this program is a national platform for projects linking energy, food, and water, embodying a just green transition. Abo Sena emphasised the need for a future-oriented vision and the importance of connecting the committee's objectives and discussions with investment opportunities, particularly with respect to improving the industry.
