CAIRO – Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi discussed with a delegation from the Saudi Ministry of Energy headed by Ahmed bin Musa Al-Zahrani, the Assistant Minister of Energy for Development and Excellence, ways to launch strategic cooperation and integration between Egypt and the Kingdom in the field of energy efficiency.
The Ministry of Petroleum stated in a statement that Egypt wants to benefit from the Kingdom’s expertise in this field to develop an integrated national program to improve energy efficiency in Egypt and expand the application of the best procedures and practices to rationalize its consumption within the framework of achieving the state’s goals for the optimal use of energy resources and reducing its import bill.
The Ministry of Petroleum said it was agreed during the meeting to quickly start joint cooperation from both sides to launch the Egyptian-Saudi initiative in developing the field of improving energy efficiency in Egypt.
He stressed that the ministry is keen to expand energy efficiency improvement projects, as it is one of the main axes of the strategy of the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, which operates according to an integrated approach with the Ministry of Electricity and Energy to form the optimal energy use mix in Egypt.
He noted that maximizing energy efficiency measures in Egypt will have the greatest impact on achieving savings and reducing the import bill for fuel, in addition to reducing carbon emissions, which contributes to achieving the state’s goals for sustainable development.
For his part, the Saudi official said his country had a great desire to cooperate with Egypt to transfer the Kingdom’s successful experience in improving energy efficiency, which began in 2012 and achieved tangible results and significant savings in daily energy consumption.
This saving is a fundamental issue in achieving the Kingdom’s goals of net zero emissions by 2060, he said, stressing the full readiness to transfer all expertise and practices and support the Egyptians in the field of developing plans and building a business model with a tangible impact in improving energy efficiency in Egypt, in a way that supports achieving its goals in this field.
During the meeting, the Saudi side presented the Kingdom’s experience in improving energy consumption efficiency, which began in 2012 and succeeded in achieving its primary goal of overcoming the challenges of increasing energy consumption in the Kingdom at the time, which was not compatible with economic growth, and placing the Kingdom among the countries with the lowest density in the world in energy consumption and the highest efficiency in its use.
The Saudi National Energy Efficiency Center team presented the experience of developing and implementing a national energy efficiency program in the Kingdom, which initially worked on implementing initiatives to raise energy efficiency in the buildings, industry, and transportation sectors, targeting energy-intensive applications and uses.
The center then expanded to include the utilities sector, implementing more than 100 successful initiatives since its inception, achieving daily savings of about 539,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by the end of 2023, aiming to reach daily savings of one million barrels in 2030.
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