The British Embassy in Cairo and the British Council in Egypt hosted the “150 Days to Go” event in the garden of the British Embassy, marking 150 days until the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP27, hosted by Egypt in November, and celebrating the UK and Egypt’s green partnership.
Both the Embassy and the British Council took the opportunity to announce a series of new initiatives and agreements on climate change, including some in partnership with Egyptian official institutions.
The Embassy announced that the UK is signing a guarantee agreement with the African Development Bank which will unlock up to $2bn of climate finance across Africa, with a portion of this dedicated to Egypt. This follows the Egyptian government’s clear messaging on the importance of climate financing to enable ambitious climate goals to be achieved.
In addition, next week UK Government funded financial investor FSD Africa will sign an initial agreement with Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority to help Egyptian insurance and pension funds integrate green and environment-friendly frameworks into their practices.
For their part, the British Council, the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities, announced new projects in Egypt under their worldwide programme, ‘The Climate Connection’. Committed to making COP27 the most inclusive ever, the Programme aims to brings people around the world together to meet the challenges of climate change through partnerships, projects, educational resources, policy dialogues and events across the British Council’s Education, Arts and English platforms.
Exploring the vital role that education plays in combatting the climate crisis, the British Council announced their 11 million EGP grant investment in Higher Education Climate Partnerships which support UK-Egypt University collaborations across a range of climate issues including research, climate-based course development and eco-friendly campuses.
These partnerships were inaugurated during a Higher Education Climate Network session run by the British Council at the beginning of the event. The session was attended by Presidents and representatives of Egyptian and UK universities working in climate and discussed future collaboration between the COP 26 University Network and the emerging Egyptian COP27 University Network, policy dialogues in climate research and the Race to Zero campaign, a global campaign which commits businesses, cities, regions, and investors to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The British Council also announced their publicly available English language and Climate resources for teachers and students. These resources will be part of the British Council’s teacher training offer to 10,000 teachers both in the Ministry of Education and Al Azhar systems and part of a ‘1 million Climate Ambassadors’ training across Egypt and wider Africa in partnership with Ain Shams University.
The British Council also announced a wide range of opportunities in Arts and Culture, Education, and English bringing artists, filmmakers, academics, scientists, researchers, teachers, students, civil society, and young people to the climate debate.
This was followed by a networking session in the embassy’s garden and opening remarks delivered by the British Ambassador Gareth Bayley, Acting Director of the British Council Ruth Cocks, as well as Their Excellences Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Dr Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar and Minister of Environment Dr Yasmine Fouad.
Ambassador Bayley took this as an opportunity to also announce that UK company Petrofac won a project to conduct a feasibility study with an Egypt-based company Mediterranean Energy Partners (MEP) for a new green hydrogen to ammonia facility, targeting the production of 125,000 tonnes of green ammonia a year for export.
The event ended with a panel discussion on “The Road to COP27”, including Ambassador Bayley and Minister Fouad as well as climate youth Ahmed Yassin and Sarah Badr.
In his speech, Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar emphasized on the importance of solidarity and cooperation to confront the issue of climate change, which poses the greatest danger to all living creatures, noting that the hosting of the COP26 summit in Glasgow gave hope to gather world leaders to draw up a road map to preserve the earth, and to oblige all people to follow and respect it, noting that Egypt, for its part, was not only settling with the role of an observer, but by hosting the COP27 Conference of Parties, it received the flag from the city of Glasgow, to play an active role in preserving the planet that is exposed to imminent dangers and find solutions to save it, expressing Egypt's aspiration that the COP27 summit will result in more efficient and decisive measures to save the climate.
Dr. Abdul Ghaffar also stressed the importance of the role played by institutions of higher education and scientific research in facing climate change and its consequences, through the implementation of many activities in preparation for the COP27 Conference, through which the Ministry seeks to provide appropriate scientific solutions and use them in the best possible way, praising the role of the British Council as an educational and cultural organisation in raising awareness of the fifth and sixth articles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and providing education, training and research opportunities through the programmes it offers, expressing that all efforts will result in achieving a sustainable future that guarantees a proper and cleaner life for future generations.
Minister of Environment Dr Yasmine Fouad said: “We thank our colleagues from the UK for their support for the last six or seven months in how to best organize the conference given that we were only given 11 months during the pandemic. We are thrilled that today in the 150 days to COP27 Minister of Foreign Affairs and COP27 President Designate Sameh Shoukry has officially signed the host country agreement in Bonn. COP27 will be a COP for implementation. This means action on the ground.”
British Ambassador to Egypt, Gareth Bayley, said: “Today is a celebration of the UK and Egypt’s flourishing ‘green partnership’. With 150 days to go till COP27, we are taking stock of what’s been achieved so far, and sharing a number of new announcements of support for Egypt in its green transition, including in climate finance, trade, and education. It’s been encouraging to see the significant steps Egypt has already taken, especially after the recent launch of its National Climate Change Strategy 2050, and we are keen to continue working together to ensure that COP27 is a great success. The earth’s clock is ticking, and we need to take action now.”
Director of the British Council, Elizabeth White, said: “Climate change is the single most important issue for future generations. Today we have announced a number of new initiatives through our Climate Connection Egypt programme which aims to build on the UK government’s COP26 pledges and supports the Egyptian government’s objectives for COP 27. Committed to making COP27 the most inclusive ever, our programme connects people from around the world, from all backgrounds and disciplines, through our work in Arts and culture, Education, and English, to address the climate emergency. Last year, the Climate Connection reached 233 million globally and we are building on this ahead of COP 27 and beyond to ensure climate continues to be at the heart of our role as a cultural relations organisation.”
The event was attended by over 300 people working in climate-related sectors in Egypt, from across government, education, business, and civil society.
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