Toward the emergence of a green eco-system in Egypt
Open letter to the Egyptian Presidency
نحو نظام بيئي أخضر في مصر
رسالة مفتوحة إلى الرئاسة المصرية
A list of proposed requests to the Egyptian government structured under 8 main pillars aiming towards our environmental sustainability as a nation, based on the first-hand on-ground collective experiences of Egyptian CSOs, startups, initiatives and businesses in the environmental field.
What is this letter?
Local civil society organizations, start-ups, initiatives and Small and Medium Enterprises who are committed to making our contribution to help attain sustainability goals for Egypt and for our country to be an example for the entire region/Africa.
Who is behind this?
The stakeholders of the proposed actions are businesses, governmental entities, civil society organizations, local communities and individuals who are affecting and being affected by environmental issues.
Who are the stakeholders?
“We come together not as a union or a coalition, but as diverse initiatives sharing the same ambition to act for a better environment through our respective fields of work.”
Who was involved?
After acknowledging our respective responsibilities toward the environment, in line with Egypt Vision 2030 and identifying the challenges and opportunities related to our work at a local level, we are proposing concrete actions that would enable us to maximize our environmental efforts.
Why this open letter?
For the Egyptian Presidency including COP presidency and the Egyptian government as a whole.
Who is this letter for?
Support.
Support.
Key highlights of the common requests:
Requests tackling 8 pillars: 1-Single-use plastics 2-Local Farming & Biodiversity 3-Climate resilience 4-Supportive regulative and financial frameworks for ‘green entities’ 5-Production 6-Water bodies protection and waste management 7-Red Sea protection 8-Litigation of environmental rights, including the following:
1.ON SINGLE-USE PLASTICS
1.1 Regulate single-use plastic. Having a minimum thickness and/or density for single-use plastics…
1.2 Accurate labeling of “oxo-degradable” plastic VS. “biodegradable”…
1.3 Banning foam food packaging by end of 2023…
1.4 Establishing a unified system for labeling all products and packaging based on their degree of recyclability…
2. ON PROMOTING LOCAL FARMING & URBAN BIODIVERSITY
2.1 Facilitate the creation of local agricultural projects and organizations…
2.2 Protect urban vegetation…
2.3 Enforce the allocation of no less than one thousand square meters of land per neighborhood to establish a nursery for production of trees…
2.4 Motivate citizens to increase green spaces and tighten penalties for trespassing on agricultural lands…
2.5 Promote stricter irrigation and water saving measures in agriculture…
2.6 Manage uncontrolled usage of chemical pesticides…
2.7 Promote native trees planting in urban green spaces…
2.8 Engage local initiatives and entities…
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-General Facts: For every tree strategically planted to provide shade, there could be a direct reduction of approximately 10 kg in carbon emissions from power plants through reduced demand for air conditioning.
-Local Facts: The size of the encroachments on agricultural lands in Egypt amounted to about 195,679 acres until 2018. Which represents about 2%, and the per capita agricultural area decreased from about 0.14 feddans in 2006 to about 0.09 feddans in 2017, and the cropped area decreased from about 0.26 feddans in 2006 to about 0.09 feddans in 2017, which further complicates the problem that the function of The growth in the cultivated area, which was estimated at 0.8% compared to the population growth estimated at 2.4% (Mohamed Qandil, 2020).
3. On climate resilience:
3.1 Integrating local communities and civil society organizations as key central actors for climate resilient development…Applying a spatially focused development framework, focusing on:
3.1.1 Small-scale local-based solutions that integrate to fulfill long term development strategies…
3.1.2 Adaptation measures that are context relevant…
3.1.3 Redefining “loss and damage” on the national level…
3.1.4 De-centralizing funding opportunities and financing for climate resilient development interventions…
3.2 Providing transparent and independent reporting of environmental issues…
3.3 Transparently and publicly communicating target bound and time bound strategies from all stakeholders…
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-Local Facts: Imagining that we are only producing 60% of our food, while studies showing that this production will be decrease by at least by 3.8% locally in 2050 because of climate change. How will the situation be if we did not adapt and mitigate especially when we reach the expected population increase from 102 million people in 2020 to 160 million in 2050?
Crops that will be affected: rice 11%, wheat 2.81%, fruits and vegetables 11.66%, soybean by 28%, maize by 19%, barley by 20%, and sunflower by 27% (The Egyptian journal of Agriculture. Article 31, Volume 42, Issue 3, September 2021)
-Local Facts: 2 million Egyptians are at risk of displacement due to climate change impacts. (Abdel-Gelil,2014)
4. On providing a supportive regulative and financial framework for “green” entities:
4.1 Creating tax exemptions for relevant social and environmental businesses…
4.2 Creating accessible legal frameworks for the creation of inclusive alliances/collectives/associations that engage small and medium scale green entities… to allow for continuous dialogue/bargaining…
4.3 Creating national incentives for packaging and production companies that innovate and produce alternative green solutions…
5. On production:
5.1 Setting requirements for the transparent reporting and communication of any production’s value chain and its respective operations…
5.2 Creating the framework for the development of a digital product passport for all products where the substances/materials, sources of materials and production, recyclability/ environmental impact, etc. would be publicly communicated...
5.3 Setting guidelines for resources consumption and waste disposal for any production chain in all industries. Such guidelines would include measures for reparation…
5.4 Setting governmental mechanisms to investigate such operations and collect data, and to engage civil society and relevant stakeholders…
6. On water bodies and waste management:
6.1 Setting concrete national measures to prevent waste being disposed in water bodies…
6.2 Having clear sanctions and incentives…through the creation of an independent environmental protection unit under the Ministry of Environment.
6.3 …broadening of the solid waste management system’s financial and institutional resources.
6.4 Providing local communities living around shores of water bodies with operational and effective waste management systems.
6.5 Implementing waste management systems that are context specific and that engage the local communities…
6.6 Incentivizing and implementing projects/solutions related to wastewater treatment and ensuring their proper management and restorage.
7. On the Red Sea and its biodiversity:
7.1 Announcing the Egyptian coral reef as Marine protected area…
7.2 … to gather data on the health of the Red Sea.
7.3 Expanding and maintaining the mooring buoy system…
7.4 Enhancing the implementation of marine zoning plan…
7.5 Obliging petroleum companies operating in the Red Sea to contribute CSR funding to marine conservation causes.
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-It is estimated that 70–90% of all reefs will be severely degraded by mid-century even if the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Climate Agreement is achieved due to rapid ocean warming. However, The Red Sea’s reef ecosystem seems to be more resilient to rising sea temperatures that usually cause bleaching in similar corals elsewhere. Making the Gulf of Aqaba one of the planet’s largest marine refuges from climate change (THE LAST RESORT | The Great Fringing Reef of the Egyptian Red Sea)
-The Three Pools and Blue Hole are two natural protectorates in the Egyptian Red Sea with a noticeable decline in the healthy coral reefs due to the unregulated number of visitors per day. Not only do the sites receive an overwhelming number of visitors, but there is also no system in place to educate them on the “reef rules” such as, don’t step or hold the reef, avoid using toxic sunscreens, or don’t chase the fish… The Great Barrier Reef of Australia has a management system that limits the number of visitors per day and distributes them in a large area.
8. On the litigation for environmental rights:
8.1 Addressing environmental and climate change lawsuits through specialized judicial departments, where there would be a time limit…clarifying specific criteria for the The State Lawsuits Authority to present government bodies before the courts in such cases.
8.2 Mapping of all judgments issued in regards to issues of environmental pollution, sanitary and industrial sewage, and pollution of the Nile River, and having a quick mechanism for their implementation …
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It takes too much time for issuing a court decision in environmental cases without stopping the ongoing damages which leads to the maximization of its negative impact. A current case led by Aswan's residents can be a landmark case study in this context, the Aswanians have been trying to stop the discharging of sewage and industrial waste into the Nile River since 1996, especially after the transformation of the Kima canal into a dumping zone. Despite the old promise they had taken from the previous minister of environment to end this violation, and the verdict of the court decision in the same year 1996, the situation had not changed and no actions were taken, which pushed the people to file another suit on the same topic in front of the Administrative Court of Aswan in 2016. The court took a decision in 2021 obliging the government to take the necessary actions but the government has appealed this decision and an appealing setting has not been set yet since 2021.
There are many examples of the law giving exceptions in implementing the trial judgment without waiting for the final verdict, such as implementing the judgment of alimony for the divorced woman. (Article No. 287) Procedures law