On the sidelines of her participation in the G20 Development Ministers’ Meeting (DMM) in India: The Minister of Planning and Economic Development participates in a session entitled "Green Development - A Way of Life"
12 June 2023
H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, participated in a session entitled "Green Development - A Way of Life", during her participation in the meeting of development ministers within the work of the Group of Twenty, which was held in India in her capacity as chair of the current session of the group from June 11 to 13.
During her speech at the session, El-Said referred to the repercussions of climate change and its impact on Egypt, as the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicate that the temperature in Egypt, Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa region is expected to be higher than the global average.
These regions will continue to suffer from effects that exceed their ability to adapt, which affects development efforts, stressing that Egypt believes that dealing with climate change is everyone's responsibility, and this was evident in the Egyptian presidency of the twenty-seventh session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27), which aims to move from pledges to implementation.
El-Said added that Egypt knows the importance of integration and harmony between climate-focused goals and the SDGs.
"A clear example of our commitment to this concept is the "Decent Life" initiative, which reflects an unprecedented and radical transformation of the Egyptian countryside by targeting the provision of Egyptian villages' infrastructure needs," El-Said said.
This initiative is considered an ideal example that reflects the concerted efforts of all ministries to contribute - each within its scope of competence - to providing a decent life for our people in the countryside, stressing that this initiative is the largest development initiative in the history of Egypt, whether in terms of the size of financial allocations or the scope of coverage and the number of beneficiaries.
El-Said indicated that the United Nations included the initiative among international best practices, in order to take into account the achievement of the 17 SDGs, by adopting a participatory approach to enhance the partnership between all relevant stakeholders, including the government, the private sector, civil society, researchers and the academic community.
The initiative also has a specific monitoring and evaluation system to ensure transparency and accountability.
According to El-Said, Egypt launched an initiative entitled "A decent life for Africa resilient to climate change" during the CoP27 presidency in November 2022.
El-Said stressed that in order to achieve harmonization between development and climate goals, it is crucial for countries to work to increase green investments, whether private or public, noting that the Egyptian government launched the "Environmental Sustainability Standards Guide" in 2019 with the aim of increasing the percentage of green projects in the national investment plan.
The CoP27 Presidency also launched the "Friends of Greening National Investment Plans in Africa and Developing Countries" initiative, pointing to the importance of providing economic incentives to promote the green transformation of the private sector.
El-Said concluded her speech by emphasizing that Egypt's commitment to combating climate change is driven by the country's national strategy for sustainable development and Egypt's Vision 2030.
In this regard, the Egyptian government has carried out a process of updating its vision, in order to respond to new and emerging challenges, including climate change, while ensuring better alignment of national strategic goals with global and regional agendas, as well as emphasizing the integration of the three dimensions of sustainable development.