2 Most Inspirational Green Projects in Egypt

Egypt is expanding its implementation of green and sustainable projects ahead of hosting the Cop 27.

Accordingly, Egypt's cities are transforming their citizens’ way of life. Infact, the bright side of the current climate crisis isn’t just bright: it’s blindingly promising. 

The National program for converting street lighting to LED energy-saving lighting systems

This would result in an annual energy saving of 900 crore units and the total cost savings of municipalities every year will be EGP 9.5 billion (about $605.3 million).

The National Program has been launched on 5th January 2015 to convert conventional street and domestic lights with sustainable LED lights.

The idea behind this ambitious project is to mitigate climate change by implementing energy-efficient LED-based street lighting and

reduce energy consumption in lighting which helps the Public Electricity Company to manage peak demand.

Additionally, it will provide a sustainable service model that obviates the need for upfront capital investment as well as additional revenue expenditure to pay for the procurement of LED lights and enhance municipal services at no upfront capital cost of municipalities as well.

The project is being implemented across all governorates by the Local Development Ministry in coordination with the Ministries of Electricity and Finance as well as the Arab Organization for Industrialization.

Cairo Bike Project

The governorate of Cairo has been accelerating its efforts to support sustainability in the city. Cairo Governorate, with support of Drosos Foundation and technical assistance and supervision by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), launched the first public system of bike sharing in Egypt, “Cairo Bike”.

The ambitious project comes in light of Egypt’s preparations for the upcoming Climate Change Conference (COP27)

The initiative aims to be a signature project added to the mix of solutions to diversify transport options in Cairo. The concept of bike-sharing, which primarily targets youth, is to provide a network of publicly available bicycles that can be safely used between stations using an app and with competitive pricing and various subscription packages.

Last week, the project was launched at Tahrir Squar, in the presence of Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Egypt’s Prime Minister, Dr. Assem El Gazar, the Minister of Housing, Major General Khaled Abdel Aal, Cairo Governor, Dr. Rania Hedeya, UN-Habitat Head of Egypt Country Programme, and Dr. Wessam El Beih, Drosos Foundation Country Director in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, along with Ambassadors and development stakeholders.

“The truth is that today's topic – "Bike Sharing" – is extremely important to open the platform for discussion among city leaders, mayors, governors, the private sector and the international community on how to support our cities in Egypt and around the world to achieve the global commitment to creating a carbon-free world,” Major General Khaled Abdel Aal stated.

The project is rolled out in an initial phase consisting of 250 bikes and 25 stations in downtown Cairo and the nearby areas. The second phase in the coming months will involve a further expansion to reach a fleet of 500 bikes in 45 stations at key locations in the Downtown area, Garden City, and Zamalek Island in Cairo. 

Bikes include GPS-tracking for optimal management and security. It will be covering strategic locations, youth hotspots, several metro stations and bus stops.

The price starts with 1 EGP per hour, with a variety of price packages and modes of payments that allow inclusiveness of all stakeholders, in addition to alternative simple payment options.

“We hope in the future to continue constructing bike lanes and use relevant technologies to collect data concerning health and the environment, which will be beneficial for conducting studies of the urban environment in the city,” Dr. Hedeya commented.

“By supporting the government of Egypt to make available, affordable and accessible transportation means, the potential to commute within Cairo and to participate actively in society is eased,” Dr. ElBeih said.

The Cairo Bike project is the product of a longstanding partnership between Cairo Governorate and development partners working together since 2016, where the Memorandum of Understanding was signed in July 2017 between Cairo Governorate and UN-Habitat.

 A later Agreement of Cooperation was signed in July 2019, with support and project funding provided by Drosos Foundation, and technical assistance and supervision by ITDP and UN-Habitat.