Welcome to the Earth.Org Global Sustainability Index, where Earth.Org examines the policies and actions regarding the environment of every nation on earth. Combining the most respected global indexes on pollution, climate change, policy, energy, oceans, biodiversity we have produced an overall Global Index, which will be updated annually. This is the Global Sustainability Index scorecard for Egypt.
Egypt is highly vulnerable to the climate crisis due to the dependence of a large part of its population on the Nile River for fresh water and its coastline, which is experiencing sea level rise.
With 98% of its population living on 4% of its total land area in the Nile Valley and Delta, the future of Egypt is directly linked to the flow of the Nile River. As a threat multiplier, the climate crisis will amplify the demographic, economic and political pressures on Egypt’s stability.
An analysis by USAID predicts that under current policies, annual average temperatures will increase from about 20°C on the Mediterranean coastline to around 24°C on the Red Sea coastline, 25°C in Cairo and 26°C further south in Aswan, while typical daytime maximum temperatures in midsummer will range from 30°C in Alexandria to 41°C in Aswan.
- In 2018, CO2 emissions for Egypt was 250.7 million tons, increasing from 128 million tons in 1999, growing at an average annual rate of 3.67%.
- Egypt has not submitted its NDC and has not expressed national GHG mitigation targets. However, its long-term development goals promote renewable energy resources and energy efficiency.
- The 2008 National Renewable Energy Strategy establishes a target of generating 20% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
- The government implemented the “Egypt Vehicle Scrapping and Recycling program’’ to minimise air pollution through the reduction of emissions coming from outdated old taxis. Around 45 000 taxi drivers turned in their vehicles for scrapping and recycling, in return for new upgraded cars.
- In 2008, a traffic law was adopted, mandating that fee-based transport vehicles, including taxis and microbuses, that are over 20 years old would no longer be eligible for a new operating license or license renewal.
You might also like: Global Emissions (2016)
References:
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Biodiversity, Policy: Sachs, J., Schmidt-Traub, G., Kroll, C., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G. (2019): Sustainable Development Report 2019. New York: Bertelsmann Stiftung and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
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Oceans: Halpern, Benjamin S., et al. “An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean.” Nature 488.7413 (2012): 615-620.
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Pollution: Wendling, Z. A., Emerson, J. W., Esty, D. C., Levy, M. A., de Sherbinin, A., et al. (2018). 2018 Environmental Performance Index. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy. https://epi.yale.edu/
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Climate Change: Climate Change Performance Index; Jan Burck, Ursula Hagen, Niklas Höhne, Leonardo Nascimento, Christoph Bals, ISBN 978-3-943704-75-4, 2019
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Energy: Enerdata –World Energy Statistics – Yearbook.
World Energy Statistics
