Egypt’s Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad announced, on Sunday, that five projects have been selected to receive a combined financing of $500m from the proceeds of the country’s first green bond issuance.
The projects were approved after a series of discussions between members of the ministerial committee, led by Ministry of Finance, to select environmentally friendly projects to which green bonds have been issued. They initially prepared a list of 41 green projects.
Ministries of environment and finance are jointly coordinating regarding the technical part and the selection of projects.
Cooperation on green bonds comes as part of the coordination between the Ministry of Environment, and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development. This will set environmental sustainability standards in Egypt’s economic and social development plan. It will also see the integration of environmental standards in the state’s development and investment plans as an essential part of the coordination.
Projects that will be financed in the first green bond offering are working in the fields of sustainable transport, sustainable water management, and sanitation management. The state is looking to give these fields priority in financing, with the aim of meeting environmental development challenges.
Additional projects, worth an anticipated total of $250m, will also be added to the five-project list upon the proposal of the Ministry of Finance, raising the total green bond financing to $750m.
The Minister of Environment said that the selected projects have environmental impact assessment indicators to ensure that they can submit annual environmental reports easily.
