In its first event in 2013, CCT tackled the issue of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction in Egypt and how the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) can help in this regard. The discussion highlighted the current situation of CDM projects operating in Egypt, presenting two existing Egyptian examples. It also emphasized the efforts done to promote clean technologies and underlined the opportunities available for the country in terms of international cooperation.
“We have a problem in terms of the black cloud… so taking the waste of one industry and using it as fuel in another kind of industry is a double benefit. On the one hand we save energy and on the other hand we reduce emissions and pollutants and protect the environment,” said Eng. Mona El Aguizy, Manager of the Climate Change Risk Management Programme with the UN (CCRMP), Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs.
“CDM offers financial incentives for such projects to be carried out and to be sustainable,” El Aguizy added.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) provides a means for countries or companies to invest in GHG reduction projects in developing countries. Projects seeking approval under the CDM must lead to real, measurable and additional reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. CDM projects must contribute to sustainable development in the host country and be implemented without any negative environmental impacts.
“There are lots of side benefits that serve the overall sustainable development goal of the host country, beside emission reduction,” said Marc Marr, Head of Carbon Project Services, Perspectives GmbH, Germany, adding: “Egypt is one of the leading countries in CDM in Africa and the Arab countries. And the Egyptian people can get more support in this regard because there are big international funds to be spent and the better Egypt is prepared for new mechanisms such as “National Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs)“ the better are its chances to get the support.”
In Egypt a lot has been done to promote CDM. In 2005, the establishment of the CDM Designated National Authority (DNA) was finalized and in 2009, CDM Awareness and Promotion Unit (CDM-APU) was founded as a new unit in Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) under the activities of the CDM Component of the Joint Program of Climate Change Risk Management in Egypt (CCRMP).
“When we first started we only had 3 projects registered, now we have 13 registered projects and 11 more willing to join with another 7 under validation,” said Ahmed Medhat, the Operational Manager of the CDM-APU. “We work on the promotion of CDM projects as well as on building CDM national capacity. Most promising sectors are waste, energy, agriculture and the oil and gas industry.
One of the CDM projects presented in the 11th CCT is in the industrial sector with Cemex Assiut for cement production, which is one of the heavy GHG emitting industries in Egypt. The project aims to switch the heavy fuel oil used in Cemex Assiut cement plant to operate partially on alternative fuels such as agricultural waste.
“This is supposed to result in an average emissions reduction of approximately 400,000 tons of CO2e/yr,” said Hosam Tharwat, Environmental & Sustainability Manager – Cemex Egypt. “CEMEX Assiut aims to substitute up to 52% of its total fuel requirement with the alternative fuels.”
The other CDM project that was presented is a Charcoal Kiln that aims at substituting the traditional open pit method of charcoal production by using modern ovens.
“We faced a problem at the beginning convincing people in the field of traditional charcoal production to shift to this eco-friendly technique, but later on we managed to talk to them in their own language and show them that it won’t affect their benefits,” Nader Hussien, Environment Protection Society (EPSA), Albohayra Governorate, told CCT attendees.
Commenting on the two projects discussed, Eng, Mona El Aguizy stressed that more is expected to be done not only in starting more projects but getting sure to get as much benefits from the promising existing projects as possible.
“We want to ensure we get the political support and scale up our projects so that we can expand and have a bigger impact,” she concluded.
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