Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad met with Andrew Plett — Acting Assistant Director of the US Agency for International Development for Middle East Affairs (USAID) — and his accompanying delegation in Cairo to discuss cooperation in several environmental files.
The discussions covered climate change, biodiversity, ecotourism, and integrating the environmental dimension into educational curricula. The minister also commended the already ongoing fruitful cooperation with the agency in supporting environmental work in Egypt.
Furthermore, Fouad reviewed the preparations to host the upcoming UN Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh this November and the desire for it be an “implementation conference,” in light of the completion of the Paris Agreement rules book and Egypt’s keenness to build on the success achieved in the COP26, advance the climate action agenda, and work to achieve parallel and balanced progress in all negotiation tracks.
She indicated that Egypt’s efforts focus especially on adaptation, climate financing, losses, and damages, which is a priority for developing and African countries. This is in addition to Egypt’s keenness to meet with various regional groups to determine their aspirations and requirements to ensure that decisions are reached that achieve the interests of all.
For his part, Plett affirmed USAID’s aspiration to cooperate with Egypt in a number of fields, including facing the challenge of climate change, which has become the world’s top concern, the best ways to adapt to it, climate financing mechanisms, in addition to sustainable tourism and the Red Sea Initiative, and integrating the environmental and climate dimension into educational curricula.
Moreover, the minister discussed with representatives of the agency the possibility of cooperation in the field of ecotourism, for which Egypt has worked over the past period to create a base for by changing the relationship between the environment and tourism sectors to become mutually beneficial, and the fruits of developing the management of natural reserves.
The two sides also discussed mechanisms for involving the private sector to invest in the conservation of natural resources, where the minister indicated that Egypt has different types of private sector investments.
