Egypt Competes for “World’s First Carbon Neutral Town Title
Three Egyptian Ministries signed an agreement paving the way for a number of Touristic Projects and Towns to compete for the title of being the first “Carbon Neutral” town in the region and the world.
A statement issued on December 14th by the Ministries of Electricity and Power, State of Environmental Affairs, and Tourism confirmed that this agreement would enable providing touristic establishments and towns with the renewable energy, which would allow them to become Carbon Neutral Towns.
The Egyptian government estimates that total Greenhouse heat emissions of touristic establishments in Egypt due to the use of electricity amount to 3.5 million tons of Carbon Dioxide.
The agreement, signed by the Minister of Electricity and Power, Dr. Ahmed Emam, the Minister of State for Environmental Affairs, Dr. Laila Iskandar, and the Minister of Tourism, Mr. Hisham Zaazou, affirmed that the Egyptian Tourism sector has a strong potential to use renewable energy, which would enable a number of touristic projects and establishments to become Carbon Neutral.
According to agreement, the Ministry of Electricity and Power would supply touristic establishments with clean energy from its windmill farms, and in turn touristic establishments interested in the use of this energy would provide the necessary logistics and facilities to enable the use and transportation of the energy from the windmill farms to their establishments.
As outlined by the agreement, the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs would be responsible for providing necessary technical support to achieve Carbon Neutrality according to international guidelines and standards. The Ministry will further work toward assuring necessary partnerships with international donor organization supporting the transition, as well as providing accreditation to projects that meet the requirements for environmentally friendly carbon neutral projects.
In parallel with that, the Ministry of Tourism will set standards for distinguishing towns and projects participating in the agreement, as well as implement promotional efforts to market these projects internationally.
It is noteworthy, that there are a number of cities of towns around the world competing for the title of the “first carbon neutral city” in the world.
The aforementioned agreement will allow touristic towns and cities such as El Gouna, Soma Bay, RasGhareb, MarsaAlam, and others to compete for the title.
It is worth mentioning that a number of cities around the world, including Masdar in the United Arab Emirates, and Seattle in the USA and others, had earlier announced plans for enabling them to capture the title of “the world’s first carbon free city”, yet it seems that this is a race that remains undecided.
