- The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will provide $175.5 million in green finance to invest in Egyptian small and medium businesses.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will provide $175.5 million in green finance to invest in Egyptian small and medium businesses, supporting the decarbonisation of the country’s economy. The new funds will be available to local financial institutions to on-lend to the private sector for climate change mitigation and adaptation projects. This is the second phase of the multilateral lender’s Green Economy Financing Facility (Geff) programme, supported by the EU and the UN’s Green Climate Fund.
Heike Harmgart, managing director for the EBRD’s Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region, at the green finance event in Cairo on Tuesday, stated that the main goals of the financing facility are to translate pledges made at Cop27 “to projects on the ground” and “help green the Egyptian economy”. At the UN climate change conference hosted in Sharm El Sheikh in November, Egypt touted some national initiatives, such as the Nexus of Water, Food and Energy (NWFE) programme, and strengthened its commitments to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
At the event on Tuesday, the Minister of International Co-operation, Rania Al Mashat, said, “The concept of green finance is coming in very forcefully in all of our strategies.” The EBRD is Egypt’s lead partner on the NWFE energy pillar, committing $1 billion in private renewable finance, $300 million in sovereign finance and $3 million in grants. The Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad said the EBRD’s green financing facility has helped support the private sector, reform Egypt’s banking sector and integrate a climate finance portfolio. She noted that last year, the Egyptian government set priority areas for decarbonisation, such as renewable energy, green hydrogen, alternatives to single-use plastics, waste management and nature-based solutions.