Planning Minister Spearheads Egypt's Green Transition with Low-Carbon Hydrogen Workshop

H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, participated in a workshop on low-carbon hydrogen development in Egypt (via video conference), attended by Dr. Mohamed Shaker, Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, Ayman Soliman, Executive Director of the Egyptian Sovereign Fund, Dr. Heba Youssef, Director of the Egypt Country Program Monitoring Unit at the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, and Jo Tindall, Director of the Environment Management Department at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

During her opening remarks, Dr. Hala El-Said expressed her satisfaction with today's participation in the second stakeholder meeting on advancing low-carbon hydrogen development in Egypt. This meeting was conducted as part of activities under Project 5.3 of Egypt's Country Program in collaboration with the OECD, aimed at financing and mobilizing investment in the field of clean energy in Egypt. She explained that the Country Program was launched in October 2021 following the signing of a memorandum of understanding by Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly and Mr. Matthias Cormann, Secretary-General of the OECD. The Country Program, overseen by the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, aims to support Egypt's priorities in achieving comprehensive and sustainable development in line with Egypt's Vision 2030, by providing technical support for formulating, implementing, and monitoring the national program for structural reforms according to international standards. The Country Program for Egypt includes 35 projects in five policy areas representing its pillars: economic stability and structural reform, technology, innovation, and digital transformation, governance and anti-corruption, statistics and monitoring, and sustainable development.

El-Said added that the fifth pillar of the Country Program focuses on enhancing institutional mechanisms in Egypt to achieve sustainable development goals comprehensively, with over eight projects aimed at sustainable development and promoting comprehensive green transition. In this regard, Egypt seeks to intensify its efforts towards the green transition by increasing the share of renewable electricity, achieving energy efficiency, promoting green hydrogen, and decarbonizing the manufacturing industry. Egypt has achieved the set target of increasing the share of green investments to total public investments gradually from 15% in 2020-2021 to 40% in 2022-2023, aiming to reach 50% by 2024-2025. Additionally, Egypt aims to increase electricity generation from new and renewable energy sources to 42% by 2035 and to produce 1.5 million tons annually of green hydrogen and related products by 2030.

Regarding the Egyptian government's efforts in the low-carbon hydrogen sector, El-Said affirmed Egypt's strong political commitment to the green transition by leveraging its natural resource wealth to increase the share of renewable energy production. Egypt aspires to become a leader in the low-carbon hydrogen sector and a regional hub for the production and export of green hydrogen and its derivatives in the region, leveraging its potential in renewable energy. This commitment is reflected in the measures taken, including the development of the national hydrogen strategy, the launch of the first low-carbon hydrogen plant in the Suez Canal Economic Zone in 2022, and the rapid development of the low-carbon hydrogen projects. Moreover, a draft law was approved by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at the beginning of the year to incentivize the development of green hydrogen projects and enhance the localization of green hydrogen technology in Egypt.

Regarding the key ideas of Project 5.3, El-Said pointed out that Project 5.3 aims to enhance financing and investment in grid-connected renewable energy sources and improve energy efficiency in buildings and industries. This is achieved through supporting the policy framework to facilitate private sector financing in clean energy projects, supporting Egypt's transition to clean energy by increasing energy efficiency and the share of renewable energy, and providing technical support from the OECD to the Egyptian government under this project. This support aims to improve conducive conditions and develop financing mechanisms to accelerate the use of green hydrogen in high-consumption local energy sectors, facilitate exports through implementing the "Industry Transition towards Net Zero Emissions Framework" of the OECD. This will contribute to achieving national goals by identifying alternative financing mechanisms for green hydrogen projects to enhance the financing feasibility of low-emission hydrogen projects to achieve carbon neutrality and facilitate exports. This is a crucial aspect of technical support, given that the main challenge in green hydrogen production is the high capital cost and the substantial amount of funds required.

El-Said added that following the promising initial meeting held on January 30, 2024, under the cooperation between the OECD and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), which succeeded in providing a platform for gathering valuable feedback and input on ongoing efforts to support the development of low-carbon hydrogen in Egypt, involving over 100 participants online and in person, we all look forward to a successful and effective dialogue session today, which will help shed light on current market barriers and further enhance private sector investments in renewable energy.