The Minister of Environment in Egypt, Dr. Yasmine Fouad, held a meeting this week to talk about the country’s first carbon credits investment fund. It’s called EgyCOP and was established during the COP27 conference with $40.7 million at its disposal.
It will be investing directly in the voluntary carbon markets with the goal of jumpstarting the nationwide carbon carbon credit market. The Egyptian Stock Exchange recently announced its launch and shared details about in the video included below.
EgyCOP has received approval for the Financial Supervision Authority for carbon markets and will now aim its efforts towards attracting financing from private and state companies to provide liquidity for the market.
The main focus in this regard appears to be the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, as well as some of the country’s banks which should provide enough resources at this initial stage.
Minister Fouad also discussed the licensing process for carbon certificates and how to provide incentives to involve the private sector into the carbon market.
Relevant: Egypt Announces Its First Carbon Capture And Storage Project
The importance of this initiative as an opportunity to drive decarbonization in Africa as a whole was also stressed by the minister. At the moment Egypt is one of the few countries on the continent that has qualified projects in transport, energy and solid waste industries.
Other countries like Kenya and Gabon are also exploring the opportunities that carbon markets can provide, though focus there is on reforestation and afforestation projects.
Read more: Shell And Energean Egypt Partner On Carbon Capture Development
