Egypt's Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad and Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation El-Sayed El-Kosayer met on Sunday to discuss preparations for the Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP 27), which Egypt will be hosting in Sharm El-Sheikh this year. During the meeting, Fouad stressed the close cooperation between the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture on many different issues, the most important of which is the black clouds issue, which has achieved tangible achievements on the ground. Cooperation between the two ministries also achieved success at the level of farmers' awareness, as rice straw is now being recycled instead of burnt, and it created many investment opportunities for young people and opened a wide scope for work in this field. Furthermore, Fouad explained that the meeting aimed to set a general framework for action and preparation for the COP 27 with the formation of a working group from the Ministries of Environment, Agriculture, and Foreign Affairs. She added that the meeting covered a number of points, namely discussing the negotiation track with regard to agriculture, identifying global initiatives related to agriculture proposed to be launched before the conference, in addition to identifying international partner organisations, and preparing a package of national adaptation projects that have been launched. Fouad also mentioned that the Ministry of Agriculture will determine its priorities from the reality of the sustainable agriculture strategy from 2020 to 2040 to identify the most urgent projects, and these priorities will be discussed in a workshop that includes all technical ministries to discuss all proposals. "The agricultural work programme will include the idea of sustainable expansion of reclaimed areas, promote self-sufficiency for strategic goods, and encourage research and development and the exchange of information and early warning systems," she said. Additionally, she said the projects that will be agreed upon under the umbrella of the national adaptation projects package will have a greater advantage and opportunity in financing if they are investment projects or projects that include cooperation with the private sector, especially if these projects include areas of interest to most countries such as energy, water, and shore protection.
