Egypt’s Planning Minister Hala el Saeed said on Sunday the climate change file is on the top of Egypt’s priorities and embodies Egypt Vision 2030.
Saeed made the remarks during her participation in a video conference organized by the Egyptian-British Society in London.
In her word, she said the Middle East and North Africa region will continue to suffer from impact of rising temperature, high sea levels and sudden change in rainfall, adding that such consecutive challenges pose a serious threat to agriculture and food safety and negatively affect development efforts.
Though it contributes 0.7% to global warming, Egypt spares no effort to accelerate green economy conversion, she said, citing the issuance of green economy bonds worth 750 million dollars.
She added that the private sector is about to issue green bonds worth 120 to 200 million dollars.
Saeed said the government adopted a package of incentives to stimulate the private sector to tap green bond market, adding that the government seeks to increase green economy projects to account for 30 percent of total projects carried out in 2011/2022 fiscal year.
This will rise to 40 percent in the next year and 50 percent in the year to follow, she added.
Saeed also spoke about the government’s plan to develop water resources with the aim of rationalizing the use of underground water, developing irrigation methods and increasing private sector’s engagement in management and maintenance of cultivated lands.
Funding is still a major problem to anti-climate change projects, she said calling for providing soft loans and grants to finance projects aiming at boosting green economy conversion.
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