Al-Mashat: Green Hydrogen 'Egypt's Next Great Private Investment Opportunity'

The Minister of International Cooperation, Rania Al-Mashat held a meeting with the mission of investors and the American business community, which was organized by the American Chamber of Commerce, to attract finance and investment in the run-up to COP27.

The meeting was attended by Steve Lutes is vice president of Middle East Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Ambassador David Thorne Senior Advisor to the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, Adviser to the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, Tarek Tawfik, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo, along with representatives from the US Embassy in Cairo.

 The mission included representatives from 40 major US development institutions, including the US Export-Import Bank, the US Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the Apache Software Foundation, Bank of America, Boeing, Google, Citibank, General Electric, HSBC, IBM, Fedex, and PepsiCo.

The Minister referred to Egypt’s recent global press conference, where Egypt’s Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly, outlined Egypt’s vision to increase private sector investments to 65 percent in the next three years, and the recent measures to empower the start-ups community in Egypt under its vision to grow as a start-up nation.

In the context of COP27, the minister also emphasized that green hydrogen is Egypt's next great investment opportunity, as it is regarded globally as the fuel of the future. As per the Integrated Sustainable Energy Strategy, Egypt aims to increase the supply of electricity generated from renewable sources to 20 percent by 2022 and 42 percent by 2035.

Building people-centric cities for the next generation, the minister noted that private investment in sustainable infrastructure is key to unlocking job opportunities for Egypt’s labor intensive economy, and mobilize collective action around private capital to close the financing gap.

Egypt’s 6th of October Dry Port, the EBRD’s first Green Cities Programme in Egypt, was recently awarded the IJGlobal Transport Deal of the Year in the Middle East and North Africa Region.

The minister stressed that international partnerships play a pivotal role in bridging the climate financing gap, as developed countries promised to provide $100 billion to finance climate action between 2020-2025, while the cost of climate change in Africa is estimated at between 7-15 billion. dollars annually.

She pointed out that these challenges reinforce the need to develop a framework for innovative financing to support climate action efforts. Blended financing to reduce investment risks in related projects.