Country overview 

The Arab Republic of Egypt is a developing country in Northern Africa. This terrain consists of a vast desert plateau that has a freshwater renewable resource - the River Nile and its Nile Valley and Delta. Most of Egypt’s population and infrastructure are concentrated in the Nile Delta and along the Mediterranean coast, which makes the country vulnerable to the impacts of sea level rise, particularly inundation and saltwater intrusion. About 15 percent of the most fertile arable land in the Nile Delta is already negatively affected by sea level rise and saltwater intrusion. With this negative impact, climate change studies predict a reduction in productivity of two major crops in Egypt, wheat and maize, by 15 percent and 19 percent, respectively, by 2050. Nevertheless, agriculture is the biggest employer involving over 31.2 percent of the total population. The agriculture sector contributed 14 percent to the country's GDP in 2009 and contributes around 10 percent of the country's total GHG emissions. 

Country priorities

In 2011, a National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction was released. This strategy lays out the path to overcome the challenges raised by climate change and estimates the investment required to reach the strategy's goals. Egypt ratified the Paris Agreement in June 2017 and submitted its nationally determined contribution (NDC), which focuses on the sustainability of agriculture, the environment, water resources, energy, and land management as priority areas.  

Egypt’s NDC pledges to reduce its GHG emissions; particularly reducing CO₂ emissions by 20 percent by 2030 from the baseline emissions level of 250Mt CO₂. Each sector of the economy has set mitigation targets; particularly for the agriculture, forest, and other land-use sectors, the mitigation targets include recycling agricultural waste and manure and the implementation of a national monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system. Additionally, the NDC outlines Adaptation Action Packages with specific adaptation goals for the most vulnerable sectors, including agriculture. Such adaptation actions include building an effective institutional system to manage climate change-associated crises and disasters at the national level.

The UNDP office in Egypt is implementing a Green Climate Fund (GCF)-financed National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Readiness project aiming to formulate and advance Egypt’s National Adaptation Plan Process. This NAP process targets building/enhancing climate resilience in all the sectors of the economy by improving institutional and technical capacity for climate change adaptation (CCA) planning, examining climate risks, determining CCA priorities, integrating CCA into national and sectoral planning and budgeting, and increasing investment in adaptation actions. This NAP process also aims to identify private sector actors with the potential to invest in climate change actions. Already there is a large and fast-growing small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector and a large domestic market. 

The main barriers towards implementation of mitigation and adaptation measures and progress in the agriculture, forests, and other land-use (AFOLU) sectors are in an institutional and technical capacity to undertake evidence generation through climate risk vulnerability assessments. Most policymakers and technical experts in the government ministries still require an enhanced understanding of climate change impacts and the technical skills necessary to craft and implement appropriate CCA integration and interventions. There are institutional barriers related to the functioning of the MRV systems on mitigation and adaptation measures and progress in the AFOLU sectors. Egypt plans to build institutional coordination and capacity on climate risks management and to undertake climate adaptation planning, as well as overcome the barrier of insufficient financial resources and budget allocations dedicated to adaptation actions.

Already, the government of Egypt has embarked on preparing a NAP framework; a process that involves assessing and addressing institutional and technical capacity gaps for adaptation planning and management of adaptation actions, national level climate risks and vulnerability assessments and identification of sectoral adaptation priorities, and mapping of mid- and long-term climate change adaptation financing options.  

SCALA in action

In Egypt, SCALA is supporting the NAP formulation process by contributing to the evidence base on adaptation practices and priorities in the agriculture, water, and land-use sectors, and to the development of a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system. SCALA supported the review of the existing evidence base on the impacts of climate change on different agricultural systems, and the identification of priority data and information gaps, including on gender. The programme contributed to a further assessment of climate risks, vulnerabilities, and adaptation measures in six agriculture subsectors: animal production and health, plant production, plant protection, poultry, fisheries, and soil and water.

A sectoral working group has also been established with support from SCALA to guide the dialogue and validate the priority areas to be included in the NAP.  SCALA is also collaborating with UNESCO and the World Food Programme to establish an M&E framework for climate change adaptation in water resources and irrigation management, and an early warning system for smallholder farmers, for which a roadmap has been developed. 

Moving ahead – 2024 and beyond 

Moving ahead, SCALA Egypt aims to: 

• Collaborate with UNESCO and the World Food Programme to develop an M&E system for the water sector, and train government officials to use the tool. 
• Draft a report that provides a business case for private sector engagement in the sugarcane value chain in Egypt. 
• Develop a private sector engagement plan based on identified NDC investment opportunities. 
  

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