Host Country Information: Egypt

Egypt is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change in that almost its entire population lives in the low-lying Nile Delta and Nile valley region. Egypt’s National Communication on Climate Change talks of the potentially devastating effects that climate change could have on the country’s future.

In 1997, Egypt founded its first ever dedicated environment ministry along with its inter-ministerial National Committee on Climate Change. Its CDM DNA has been in place since 2003. From 2002 to 2006, with support from UNDP/UNEP, it developed and largely implemented a CDM promotion strategy, the aim being to create the necessary institutional and structural framework and develop national capacities (private and public) in the CDM sector.

These initiatives have contributed to the positive response to the CDM in Egypt today. Apart from the obvious environmental benefits, the Egyptian government hopes it will attract additional foreign investment, help renew key infrastructure and create much-needed jobs. The country’s CDM infrastructure is well established and its project portfolio is evenly balanced. In a World Bank study on CDM host countries (including Brazil, China, India and South Africa), Egypt ranked somewhere in the middle – it is, however, one of the furthest advanced African countries in the use of the CDM.

Germany and Egypt signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2006. At the same time, the KfW Bank Group entered into an agreement with Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) on the purchase of CERs from a CDM wind power project. The Zafarana Wind Power Plant in the Gulf of Suez is scheduled to go into operation at the end of 2007 and is expected to produce some 168,000 CERs. The German Environment Ministry has agreed with the Egyptian Environment Ministry to use the MoU not just to create the conditions to foster business initiatives, but to actually bring German and Egyptian project developers to the negotiation table.


Downloads

CDM MoU with Egypt

Further selected information:

Egypt’s National Communication on Climate Change to the UNFCCC (PDF)
Egypt National Strategy Study on the Clean Development Mechanism
Egyptian DNA website
Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA)
Joint Implementation Quarterly: Egypt Country Profile. In JIQ 02-05, pp. 4-5 (PDF)
EIA Country Analysis Brief Egypt
Earth Trends Country Profiles: Climate and Atmosphere (PDF)
German Foreign Office: Information on Egypt
European Commission: The EU’s Relations with Egypt