Pathways towards a Green Economy in Egypt

Egypt, the largest economy in North Africa, has already taken first steps towards developing a national strategy for a green economy. For the transformation towards an environmentally friendly economic model it is important to identify potentials for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resource efficiency along the different value chains. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in this transformation process: they account for up to 40 per cent of Egypts national GDP. On behalf of the "Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit" (GIZ), Markus Kühlert, Co-Head of the Production and Consumption Systems Research Unit, Jacqueline Klingen, Researcher in the International Energy Transitions Research Unit and other researchers of the Wuppertal Institute have investigated how Egyptian SMEs can be supported in  taking advantage of the opportunities offered by greening. The results of their analysis have now been published in the final report "Pathways towards a Green Economy in Egypt".

The aim of the study was to identify opportunities for SMEs in Egypt to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and increase resource efficiency based on a hot spot analysis of three selected value chains. To this end, the researchers first introduce the concept of green economy in their report and then provide an overview of the current state of Egypt's economy as well as the value chains selected for analysis and their corresponding sectors. In the main part, the authors examine the three value chains for cotton, sugar beet and refrigerators – including environmental hot spots, the specific measures to counteract these hot spots and an evaluation of these options by experts. On this basis, the researchers conclude with recommendations on how to support the transition to a green economy in Egypt. The recommendations focus on how SMEs can design the processes of their value chains in an environmentally friendly way and which economic policy frameworks should be created with regard to globally cooperative regional economies.

The report "Pathways towards a Green Economy in Egypt" was produced as part of the GreenEco-EGY project and can be downloaded free of charge via the following link.