Egypt is the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the Middle East and Africa after Iran and Saudi Arabia, with GHGs reaching 351.96 MtCO₂e in 2019. Egypt&rsquo;s energy sector is the top contributor to these emissions, responsible for 74% in 2019 (WRI, 2022; Enterprise, 2020).
Egypt is also the largest country in North Africa and the Arab region in terms of population, which has led to a growing demand for energy. This problem has further been exacerbated by the aggravation of the burden of the energy subsidy bill (IRENA, 2018). In order to meet the growing demand for energy, the Egyptian government developed a strategy to diversify energy sources known as the "Integrated and Sustainable Energy Strategy to 2035", with the aim of ensuring the continued security and stability of the country's energy supply. This strategy entails enhancing the role of renewable energy and energy efficiency, while targeting diversification of the energy mix by increasing reliance on renewable energy sources, especially wind and solar energy (CAPMAS, 2016)
Egypt&rsquo;s Vision 2030 anticipates that the energy sector will be able to meet all the requirements of sustainable development using renewable energy resources and maximize the utilization of its both non-renewable and renewable resources. The aim is to contribute effectively to promoting economic growth, competitiveness and social justice, as well as preserving the environment and achieving leadership in the development of renewable energy sources while keeping pace with the international goals of sustainable development (CAPMAS, 2016)&nbsp;
This commentary highlights the need for renewable energy to tackle climate change and attain sustainable development and social justice in Egypt. The following section focuses on the link between renewable energy and climate change. Section two highlights the role of renewable energy in attaining sustainable development, while three discusses the relationship between renewable energy and social justice. The fourth and fifth sections are dedicated to analyzing the challenges faced by the renewable energy sector, as well as a number of policy recommendations.
Renewable energy and climate change
The ambition of governments, cities, and expert constituencies to combat climate change and transition to a post-carbon energy system is reflected in the current global expansion of renewable technologies (Sakellariou, 2013; Hashmi and Alam, 2019; Ibrahiem, 2020). Egypt is one of the developing nations affected by the phenomenon of climate change, and has therefore demonstrated great interest in the issue: Egypt affirms the principles of the Rio de Janeiro Declaration and the Bali Action Plan, particularly with regard to the principle of common but differentiated responsibility (CBDR) among countries. Additionally, Egypt is among the Paris Agreement&rsquo;s 194 signatories, who have pledged to limit the rise in global temperature and keep it below two degrees Celsius (compared to the pre-industrial revolution era), and to follow up efforts to stop the temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius.&nbsp;
Egypt also seeks to reduce its GHGs emissions by taking measures to reduce energy consumption and invest in renewable energies. Indeed, the country is expanding in clean and environmentally friendly energy projects (mainly wind, solar and biomass) (IRENA, 2018). The renewable energy strategy in Egypt aims to reach about 42% of the total electricity produced from renewable sources by 2035 (IRENA, 2018) and a national strategy for green hydrogen has been prepared to be included in the Egyptian energy framework.&nbsp;
<h3>&nbsp;Renewable energy and sustainable development</h3>
Egypt adopted the first renewable energy strategy in 1982, aiming to generate 5% of its electricity from renewable sources in 2000 (EU, 2015). In 2013, the government adopted an integrated strategy for sustainable energy from 2015 to 2035 through a project funded by the European Union. In October 2016, the strategy was approved by the Supreme Council of Energy (IRENA, 2018).&nbsp;
To achieve sustainability in the energy sector, the government has developed fiscal, monetary and trade policies to develop renewable energy sources and encourage investment. One notable fiscal policy tool is taxes, with the capital components of renewable energy being subject to a value-added tax (VAT) of only 5% instead of 14% according to the VAT law (IRENA, 2018). In February 2017, the Central Bank added the renewable energy sector to the initiative of medium-sized companies and enterprises issued in 2016 (a 200 billion EGP initiative) with the aim of encouraging banks to finance small and medium-sized companies and enterprises. (Abbas, 2019). Additionally, the government has taken several measures to encourage the participation of the private sector in renewable energy projects. The most important step in this regard was the legislative amendments made to remove obstacles to investment in this field; most notably, the approval of the feed-in tariff system in September 2014 to encourage the production of electricity from renewable sources (NREA, 2020).&nbsp;
<h3>Renewable energy and social justice</h3>
Egypt has opportunities to diversify the energy mix and accelerate the shift towards renewable energy to reduce both the high youth unemployment rate and poverty rate. For youth employment, 6000 direct and indirect jobs have been created as a result of the present phase of deployment of renewable energy, with solar photovoltaic (PV) alone generating half of these jobs. As analyzed by IRENA (2018), manufacturing accounts for 22% of new jobs in the solar PV industry, while the majority of jobs created for wind are in operations and maintenance (O&amp;M) (43%). Moreover, diverse biomass technologies have been put on display in Egypt, especially for the rural biogas production from animal waste and for the collecting and briquetting of agricultural waste. These technologies stop young people from moving to big cities by providing jobs in rural areas, thus reducing the poverty rate (IRENA, 2018; Cote, 2019).
<h3>Challenges facing the renewable energy sector&nbsp;</h3>
In Egypt, the growth of the renewable energy industry faces a number of obstacles, including those related to technology, economics and politics. Technological challenges include the absence of specifications for operation and management, as Egypt's technology and investments in the solar energy sector are still in the experimental stage and have not advanced to the point of mass production (Salah et al., 2022). This is in addition to a lack of a labor force competent in renewable energy technology, as well as a shortage of appropriate storage techniques (Salah et al., 2022).&nbsp;
Economic difficulties manifest in various forms, where some rural areas below the poverty line may be unable to afford to buy expensive renewable energy. On the private sector side, high payback rates and continued high yearly interest rates continue to be a challenge, as small and medium-sized businesses find it challenging to make investments in the renewable energy sector.
The challenges related to politics can be attributed to the existence of inconsistent regulations across different departments of government, the absence of standardization, and the absence of a consistent regional regulatory framework (Salah et al., 2022).
<h3>Recommendations</h3>
Below are several recommendations to promote renewable energy and tackle climate issues in Egypt:
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Accelerate the shift towards renewable energy. It is important to spread awareness of the importance of transitioning to the use of renewable energy and work to expand this use by developing legislation that stimulates investment in the renewable energy industry and supporting private sector investment in renewable energy projects by providing affordable loans with low interest rate, and reducing fees and taxes for green energy technologies&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Ensure a national hydrogen strategy that prioritizes national development while protecting Egypt&rsquo;s economic and political dominance as the largest economy in the Middle East (Esily et al., 2022). The development of hydrogen in Egypt is vital and will include addressing a number of issues, such as updating present technologies to offer hydrogen at a reasonable price. A national strategy should be developed on the basis of more investigation and evaluation in three key areas: global energy knowledge, blue hydrogen sourced from natural gas, and green hydrogen sourced from renewable sources (Esily et al., 2022).&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Learn from international experiences. Egypt stands to benefit, for example, from the German experience of temporarily subsidizing solar energy, which contributed to increased use of solar roofs, in addition to supporting the use of solar air conditioning by the banking system, as done by the German Development Bank. Egypt can also learn from German financing methods and economic policies, such as carbon emissions certificates and tax incentives (Rentzing, 2009).&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Finally, since Egypt has a plan to gradually phase out subsidies on fossil fuel, legislation could focus on directing subsidies for renewable energy sector known as green subsidies to enhance the net zero-carbon transition (Monasterolo &amp; Roberto, 2019). Green subsidies are thought of as a unique kind of financial incentive and fiscal tool intended to save the environment and natural endowments. In 2017, IRENA calculated green subsidies to have been around USD 167 billion, with the EU estimated to have received around 54% of all estimated green subsidies, followed by the US (14%), Japan (11%), China (9%), India (2%), and the rest of the world with 9% (Taylor, 2020). The majority these green subsidies go toward the development of both energy-efficient technologies and green energy, thereby enhancing carbon dioxide mitigation (Xie et al., 2019).&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<hr>
References
Abbas, M. (2019). The Central Bank's initiative to finance small and medium enterprises. Egyptian Institute for Studies.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). (2016). Egypt Vision 2030: Sustainable Development. (In Arabic)
Cote, Sylvain.&nbsp; (2019).&nbsp; Renewable Energy and Employment: The Experience of Egypt, Jordan and Morocco.&nbsp; KS&mdash;2019-DP69.&nbsp; Riyadh: KAPSARC.&nbsp; doi: 10.30573/KS--2019-DP69.
Enterprise. (2020). A look at Egypt&rsquo;s most polluting sectors. https://enterprise.press/hardhats/look-egypts-polluting-sectors/
Esily, R. R., Chi, Y., Ibrahiem, D. M., &amp; Chen, Y. (2022). Hydrogen strategy in decarbonization era: Egypt as a case study.&nbsp;International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.&nbsp; <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.04.012">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.04.012</a>
EU (2015), &ldquo;Integrated Sustainable Energy Strategy&rdquo;; for Technical Assistance to Support the Reform of the Energy Sector (TARES), European Delegation of the European Union to Egypt.
Hashmi, R., &amp; Alam, K. (2019). Dynamic relationship among environmental regulation, innovation, CO2 emissions, population, and economic growth in OECD countries: A panel investigation.&nbsp;Journal of Cleaner Production. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.325">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.325</a>
Ibrahiem, D. M. (2020). Do technological innovations and financial development improve environmental quality in Egypt?&nbsp;Environmental Science and Pollution Research,&nbsp;27(10), 10869-10881. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-07585-7
International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). (2018). Renewable energy outlook: Egypt, Abu Dhabi.
Monasterolo I. &amp; Raberto M., (2019), The impact of phasing out fossil fuel subsidies in the low carbon transition, Energy Policy, 124, 355-370. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.08.051">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.08.051</a>
New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) (2020). Annual Report. <a href="http://nrea.gov.eg/Content/reports/Annual%20Report%202020%20En.pdf">http://nrea.gov.eg/Content/reports/Annual%20Report%202020%20En.pdf</a>
Rentzing, S. (2009). Solar cooling: cold that comes from the sun. Spiegel business. <a href="https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/solare-kuehlung-kaelte-die-aus-der-sonne-kommt-a-630782.html">https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/solare-kuehlung-kaelte-die-aus-der-sonne-kommt-a-630782.html</a>
Sakellariou, Nicholas. (2013). A Framework for Social Justice in Renewable Energy Engineering. Chapter 12, Engineering Education for Social Justice 10.1007/978-94-007-6350-0_12.
Salah, S. I., Eltaweel, M., &amp; Abeykoon, C. (2022). Towards a sustainable energy future for Egypt: A systematic review of renewable energy sources, technologies, challenges, and recommendations. Cleaner Engineering and Technology, 100497. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clet.2022.100497">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clet.2022.100497</a>
Taylor, Michael (2020), Energy subsidies: Evolution in the global energy transformation to 2050, International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi.
World Resource Institute (WRI). (2022) Climate Watch, <a href="https://www.wri.org/initiatives/climate-watch">https://www.wri.org/initiatives/climate-watch</a>
Xie, X.; Zhu Q. &amp; Wang R. ( 2019). Turning green subsidies into sustainability: How green process innovation improves firms' green image, Business Strategy and the Environment 82 (7), 1416-1433. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2323">https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2323</a>

آراء

Commentaries

الطاقة

Read Also