The OECD Green Growth Policy Review (GGPR) of Egypt is part of the Egypt-OECD country programme, which was officially launched by OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann and Dr Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt, in October 2023. The report aims to review Egypt’s policy framework for green growth and provide recommendations to help the country move towards a green and sustainable economy.
The GGPR was developed within the same peer review framework applied to the OECD Environmental Performance Reviews. The principle aim of this programme is to help member and selected partner countries improve their individual and collective performance in environmental management by:
helping governments evaluate progress in achieving their environmental goals
promoting continuous policy dialogue and peer learning
stimulating greater accountability from governments towards each other and the public.
This report examines the state of Egypt’s environment and reviews the country’s green growth performance since 2015. Progress in meeting domestic objectives and international commitments provides the basis for assessing the country’s environmental and green growth performance. Such objectives and commitments may be broad aims, qualitative goals or quantitative targets. A distinction is made between intentions, actions and results. To the extent possible, assessment of environmental and green growth performance is based on the OECD Environment Statistics and OECD Green Growth Indicators. The assessment is also placed within the context of Egypt’s geography, endowment in natural resources, socio‑economic conditions and demographic trends.
The OECD is indebted to the government of Egypt for its co-operation in providing information; for the organisation of the kick-off mission (19 March 2023), the fact-finding mission to Cairo and Alexandria (19‑22 June 2023), and the policy mission to the New Administrative Capital (20 February 2024) and to Cairo for the policy dialogue with urban planning and development stakeholders (21 February 2024). Particular thanks are due to the Ministry of Environment, which co-ordinated the review from the Egyptian side under the leadership of Mohamed Moatamed, assistant minister for planning, investment and institutional support with the support of Zainab Zaki. We are also grateful to officials and experts from the other ministries involved in the GGPR review process: the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities, the Ministry of Local Development, the Ministry of International Co-operation, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics, the Governorate of Alexandria, the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, the Waste Management Regulatory Authority, the New Urban Communities Authority, the Urban Development Fund and other specialised agencies.
The review process was co-ordinated by Julia Wanjiru Nikiema-Schwarz under the strategic guidance of Nathalie Girouard, Head of Division of the Environmental Performance and Information Division of the OECD Environment Directorate. Kathleen Dominique provided oversight within the context of the broader Environmental Performance Review programme.
The authors of this report are Julia Wanjiru Nikiema-Schwarz (main author); Insa Handschuch, Astrid Tricaud and Alessandra Celani who drafted the sections on taxation and on environmentally harmful support (Chapter 2) under the guidance of Assia Elgouacem. Abenezer Aklilu provided inputs on air pollution and waste management (Chapter 1); Ivana Capozza provided contributions to Chapter 2, and Ahmed Zaazaa provided input on the institutional framework and the building sector (Chapter 3). Judy Baker prepared best practice examples from Ecuador, India and Indonesia. Amany Aly conducted desk research, provided inputs on corporate social responsibility and facilitated translations from Arabic information sources into English. Abenezer Aklilu and Carla Bertuzzi provided statistical support; Lydia Servant, Jennifer du Crest, Gabriella Scaduto-Mendola and Elizabeth Duckett Dell Osso provided administrative support; Mark Foss copy-edited the report and Natasha Cline-Thomas provided communications support. OECD Environment Deputy Director Mathilde Mesnard led the policy mission to Cairo in February 2024.
The preparation of the GGPR benefitted from a broad consultation process. The OECD is grateful to the representatives of the two examining countries: François Menguelé, Tamer Elshayal (Germany), and Alexandra Lamotte and Mohammed Fangary (France). Several colleagues in the OECD Secretariat provided comments and feedback, including Jesus Anton, Alexandre Banquet, Florence Bossard, Ivana Capozza, Charlotte Denise-Adam, Kathleen Dominique, Luisa Dressler, Bram Edens, Manon Epherre Iriart, Jane Ellis, Giorgio Gualberti, Yosuke Jin, Katia Karousakis, Moongyung Lee, Xavier Leflaive, Paulina Lopez Ramos, Michaël Maes, Tadashi Matsumoto, Eugene Mazur, Mauro Migotto, Edward Perry, Jibran Punthakey, Kilian Raiser, Mohammed Saffar, Deger Saygin, Katarina Svatikova, Ania Thiemann, Simon Touboul, Kurt van Dender, Sho Yamasaki, Ji Soo Yoon and Frédérique Zegel. We are also grateful to contributions from Sandrine Gamblin and Mohamed Hegazy, as well as international partner organisations, including the Centre for Economic, Legal, and Social Studies and Documentation (CEDEJ), Transport for Cairo, the French Agency for Development (AFD), German Development Co-operation (GIZ), the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group.
This report was made possible through voluntary contributions from Egypt as part of the country programme. The OECD Working Party on Environmental Performance discussed the draft Green Growth Policy Review of Egypt at a special session on 28 May 2024 in Paris. The review was also discussed by the OECD Environmental Policy Committee at its meeting on 29 May 2024.