Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb issued a decision Tuesday to form a ‘National Council on Climate Change’, headed by the Minister of Environment, according to an official statement.
The council will also consist of representatives from several ministries, state-run agencies and institutions according to an official statement.
The council’s main responsibility will be to draft a national strategy to confront climate change and keep it updated. Responsibilities also include linking the national strategy with the strategy for sustainable development, whilst channelling all national efforts to counter climate change, reduce emissions and to adapt to the risks of climate change.
Also included is a plan to allocate funds in each ministry to deal with the impacts of climate change, and to gradually increase them. The representative from the Ministry of Planning will be responsible for coordination with the ‘Green Climate Fund’ and its approved projects in Egypt as well as for executing administrative reforms.
The ‘Green Climate Fund’ has been set up under the ‘United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’ (UNFCCC). It is supposed to be the centrepiece in long term financing of environmental projects in the UN’s plans to tackle climate change. The UNFCCC aims to raise $100bn each year by 2020, with the ‘Green Climate Fund’ being set up as an instrument to transfer money from the developed to the developing world.
The council is also to take the necessary recommendations on climate change issues before they are forwarded to the Council of Ministers. The council is to issue a report on the results of its work every four months, or whenever it considers issuing a report to be necessary.
