Dr. Yasmine Fouad, Minister of the Environment, met with Sergey Terentiev, the Belarusian ambassador to Cairo, to discuss ways of bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the field of the environment, and cooperation at the global level, especially in the climate change file.
Dr. Yasmine Fouad confirmed Egypt’s success by hosting the COP 27 climate conference in advancing the global climate agenda at a critical time the world is going through, noting that Egypt is currently preparing a partnership agreement with the UAE to move forward towards the next COP 28 climate conference, as it will be part of the mission Egypt Follow-up on the decisions issued by the Sharm El-Sheikh Executive Plan for the Cop 27 Climate Conference, especially those related to the Loss and Damage Fund and its governance, as well as the global goal for adaptation and the new collective goal for financing, and the best ways to advance in the field of mitigation.
The minister also pointed out the need to work on the initiatives that were launched during the COP 27 climate conference, by focusing on initiatives of urgent priority to be put forward for work with partners on in the upcoming COP 28 climate conference, including the waste management initiative 50 by 2050 for Africa, and the biodiversity and nature-based solutions initiative. And also the gender (women) initiative, which is the category most affected by climate change and how to enable them to confront it in 3 areas: food, water and energy, in addition to the FAST agriculture initiative related to food security, and the water initiative and how to benefit from early warning systems to counter the impact of climate change. On the sea level and water issues, where the Minister called on the State of Belarus to participate in those initiatives to move forward towards implementation steps for them.
For his part, the Belarusian ambassador praised the statements of the Egyptian Minister of Environment on the importance of changing society’s culture in the field of the environment, preserving natural resources and facing global challenges, and his country’s keenness to work on the results of the COP 27 climate conference in light of the extended relations between Egypt and Belarus for the future of future generations, and also to support The road towards the next climate conference COP 28, and welcomed cooperation with Egypt in working on its initiatives.
The two sides also discussed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation between the two countries, as the minister referred to the opening of investment opportunities in the field of environment in Egypt, especially in the field of managing natural reserves, to provide an opportunity for the private sector to provide services related to ecotourism, and a package of ecotourism projects is currently being prepared in Egypt. on natural resources, such as building eco-resorts in reserves to be environmentally friendly and encourage the concept of eco-tourism, as well as linking the strategy of an economy based on vital materials that Egypt will launch to link agriculture with industry and maximizing the use of important crops for industry, and the national strategy for agricultural waste to benefit from 40 million tons of Agricultural waste is annually reused and recycled to produce animal feed, the availability of which has become a global challenge today. In the field of waste management, there are many investment opportunities supported by studies and statistics prepared by the Ministry to determine the size of waste and appropriate areas, as well as the necessary legislation.
