Egypt Launches National Climate Change Strategy-2050

Egypt's Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad
Egypt's Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad
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Egypt Launches National Climate Change Strategy-2050

Egypt's Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad
Egypt's Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad

Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad launched Wednesday Egypt’s National Climate Change Strategy-2050 on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.

Attending the announcement event, were, the Regional Director of the World Bank Group’s (WBG) Sustainable Development Department for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Ayat Soliman, and Resident Coordinator of UNDP, Egypt, Elena Panova, according to a ministry statement issued in Cairo on Wednesday.

The strategy will enable Egypt to plan for facing and managing climate change at different levels, besides enhancing efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals in line with Egypt Vision 2030, Fouad said.

The strategy includes two stages: The first phase is the general framework that was approved in June and the second is the preparation of the full strategy.

The Egyptian government adopts several approaches that aim to achieve the goals of the National Climate Change Strategy-2050, including ensuring comprehensive planning among various sector and national strategies in addition to merging the procedures related to climate change and sustainability standards in the national planning and budget preparation, said the ministers.

Others include merging climate adaptation in infrastructure projects, benefiting from the available funding options under the umbrella of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, and other climate-related sources.

The minister further explained that the strategy seeks to accomplish five goals: Achieving sustainable economic growth, enhancing adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change, enhancing climate change action governance, enhancing scientific research, technology transfer, knowledge, and public awareness for combating climate change, and maximizing energy efficiency.



Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)

The humanitarian aid system in Gaza is "facing total collapse" because of Israel's blockade on aid supplies since March 2, the heads of 12 major aid organizations warned Thursday, urging Israel to let them "do our jobs".

Israel has vowed to maintain its blockage on humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged territory, saying it is the only way to force Hamas to release the 58 hostages still held there.

"Every single person in Gaza is relying on humanitarian aid to survive," the chief executives of 12 NGOs, including Oxfam and Save the Children, wrote in a joint statement.

"That lifeline has been completely cut off since a blockade on all aid supplies was imposed by Israeli authorities on March 2," they said, adding that "This is one of the worst humanitarian failures of our generation."

A survey of 43 international and Palestinian aid organizations working in Gaza found that almost all have suspended or drastically cut services since a ceasefire ended on March 18, "with widespread and indiscriminate bombing making it extremely dangerous to move around", the NGOs said.

"Famine is not just a risk, but likely rapidly unfolding in almost all parts of Gaza," they said. "Survival itself is now slipping out of reach and the humanitarian system is at breaking point."

"We call on all parties to guarantee the safety of our staff and to allow the safe, unfettered access of aid into and across Gaza through all entry points, and for world leaders to oppose further restrictions."

Israel's renewed assault has killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, bringing the overall toll since the war erupted to 51,065, most of them civilians.

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.