Mohamed Moussa and Ayman Roushdi
Governor of Cairo Khaled Abdel Aal met on Monday with a delegation of Green City Action Plans (GCAP) of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The meeting came within the framework of the Cairo Governorate’s participation in the EBRD Green Cities Programme. Abdel Aal and the bank delegation discussed the development of an action plan for the green city and the projects to be implemented in Cairo within the scope of the programme.
During the meeting, the governor of Cairo stressed the state’s keenness to implement the green city system, within the framework of the government’s interest in mitigating the negative effects of climate change on human life.
The step coincides with Egypt’s hosting of UN Climate Change Conference 2022 (UNFCCC COP27), which will be held in Sharm el-Sheikh in November this year.This will offer an important opportunity for all countries worldwide to scale up commitments to deliver on the Paris Agreement and Glasgow Climate Pact.
Abdel Aal said that Egypt has carried out a number of development projects nationwide, including slum clearance, refuse recycling factories, expanding sanitary landfills and awareness campaigns to expand green areas.
Egypt has made much progress towards the green economy and sustainability in view of its efforts to encourage eco-tourism, promote biodiversity, reduce plastic waste and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The EBRD will support Cairo Governorate in the green cities methodology by consulting international experts in the field to identify areas of priority for the programme, the Governor of Cairo said.
Egypt cherishes the idea of sustainability as shown in the launching the Go Green Initiative and working to turn Sharm el-Sheikh into a green city so that the Red Sea resort city will be the first green city in Egypt, the Arab world, the Middle East and Africa, Abdel Aal told the EBRD delegation.
Some 33 programmes are being implemented to promote the use of solar energy as well as clean transportation, the governor said.
Cairo Governorate joined the EBRD’s Green Cities programme in July 2019 and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bank in April 2021 to implement it.
The EBRD’s Green Cities programme will provide the necessary finance to transform cities into green, sustainable settlements through investments that amount to €2.5 billion.
Since cities produce 75 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions, this reflects the importance of the programme in combating climate change.
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