Egypt: The Minister of Environment, Yasmin Fouad, has recently held a meeting with Mai Abu Al-Naja, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, and discussed setting up a core to prepare a supportive climate for the banking sector to finance climate projects in Egypt.

In her remarks, Minister Yasmin Fouad stated, “Cooperation with the Central Bank to develop a roadmap for financing priority projects and to build the capacity of the banking sector in climate financing,” we seek to build a generation of national experiences in climate finance.”

During the meeting, Minister of Environment Yasmin Fouad accompanied Mrs Mai Abu Al-Naja, the First Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, Mr Sharif Luqman, the Financial Integration and Sustainability Sector, and Mr Walid, the Director-General of the Sustainability Administration.

In addition, the officials discussed the cooperation mechanisms in enhancing the environmental sustainability file, especially in the banking sector, in the presence of several ministry leaders. 

Furthermore, the Minister said that the journey to achieve environmental sustainability in Egypt had seen remarkable development over the past years, shifting from focusing only on reducing pollution to conserving resources to achieve sustainability.

She further clarified that the meeting aims to create a supportive climate for the banking sector in Egypt to work on climate finance, in line with the National Climate Change Strategy 2020 and the updated National Contribution Plan.

Additionally, officials from the ministry also stated that building a climate financing system in Egypt in cooperation with the Central Bank, banks, development partners and the private sector confirmed The National Climate Investment Plan is one of the fruits of the COP27 Climate Conference, which lays out a roadmap for how to move forward in climate-supporting preparation and building disciplined climate financing at the national level.

The Minister also attracted attention to the importance of the Central Bank’s representation in the National Council for Climate Change, headed by the state of the Prime Minister and the membership of ministries and sectors concerned, to present a general vision of the best ways to integrate Egypt’s banking sector in climate financing, said reports.

Yasmin Fouad further stressed the importance of cooperation with the Central Bank in working on implementing the goals of the National Climate Change Strategy 2020 through a roadmap outlining the role of banks in implementing each target, highlighting the promising opportunities that can be started soon as a step to implement our defined National Contribution Plan.

On her part, Ms Mai Abu Al-Naga, Deputy Governor of the First Central Bank, welcomed the Bank’s full cooperation with the Ministry of Environment at various levels to strengthen the environmental sustainability and climate financing file in Egypt’s banking sector.

Additionally, she added that the banking sector in Egypt, which 21 banks and private banks represent, has a great passion for contributing to the achievement of long-term development goals; the Central Bank has prepared a map to achieve these goals determining the role of each Bank in it, expressing the need to pair this map with the map of the Ministry of Environment that Identify the projects and sectors of climate financing.

Abu Al-Naga pointed to the Bank’s keenness to align with the state’s objectives on providing access to climate project funding. They look forward to working with the Environment Ministry’s Climate Investment Unit to identify feasibility.

At the end of the meeting, several consultative sessions were agreed upon to formulate an overall vision of a roadmap for climate financing in Egypt for the banking sector, and to identify a list of priority investment opportunities depending on national and global variables, confirmed reports.