Climate change is slowly stamping an imprint on Egypt’s environment, culture, and economy. The most obvious of these challenges is the rising scarcity of water. Egypt is already one of the world’s most water scarce countries; while the UN assesses water scarcity at 1,000 cm3 per person annually, Egypt has less than 560 cm3 per person. Rapid population growth, urbanization, desertification, and unpredictable weather patterns are all taking an unrelenting toll on the country’s strained water resources, while fear is climbing over loss of water from the Nile if the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam holds back water during droughts.
Just as worrisome is rising heat. This threatens health, water supplies and, in a country where over 30 percent of the labour force is directly involved in agriculture, Egypt’s harvests.
While there has been much work done on water conservation, climate change mitigation policy is unclear. Much of the action is handled by the private sector which is not always invested in the strictest environmental standards. Is it possible to tackle the oncoming threat while balancing mitigation with the need for development?
Please join us for the first of a series of events on climate change mitigation, part of the Middle East Institute’s Egypt program’s upcoming work on hidden threats and imminent challenges.
Speakers:
Abla Abdel Latif
Chair, Presidential Advisory Council for Economic Development; executive director and director of research, Egyptian Center for Economic Studies
Sarah El-Battouty
Founder and chairperson, ECOnsult
Mirette F. Mabrouk, moderator
Senior fellow and director, Egypt program, MEI
Additional speakers TBD
Photo by KHALED DESOUKI / Stringer