Egypt's Minister of Environment, Yasmine Fouad; met with Waleid Gamal El-Dein, the Chairperson of the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE), at the authority's headquarters in Sokhna, to activate the cooperation protocol signed between the two sides. Fouad said that there are three tracks of joint cooperation with the authority in the future stage. The first track is based on the idea of industry and its compatibility with the environment, and the second track is based on the idea of green waterways, where the ministry conducts a periodic assessment of ports and determines the priority of ports that will be green. The third track is discussing ways to identify investment opportunities for SCZONE. During the meeting, the Minister of Environment touched on the environmental and climate investment conference, which will be launched in July, to present Egyptian laws, investment opportunities and success stories, and launch a strategy of gradual transformation towards a vital economy that contributes to maximizing the economic return from vital resources, which increases flexibility in investment, confronting climate change and contributing to environmental sustainability. She also stated that the programs for controlling industrial pollution and sustainable green industry will facilitate opportunities for industrial companies inside the SCZONE to obtain financing to implement projects that serve the industry and the environment. The ministry will also cooperate with the authority in promoting the idea of a circular and green economy for the industrial community. The minister added that industrial pollution control programs and sustainable green industry, according to the protocol signed with the authority, will provide technical support in determining international standards for fuel and water consumption in production units to achieve efficient use and reduce environmental pollution loads, and prepare environmental and economic feasibility studies for projects located in the authority that will be funded from the programs, and capacity building in the areas of cleaner production, sustainable consumption and production, and calculating the carbon footprint of products. For his part, the head of the SCZONE presented the green hydrogen projects to be established within the zone, for which a number of memorandums of understanding and framework agreements were signed during the last period in partnership with a number of international companies and alliances specialized in this field, as the zone plans to be a regional hub for the production of and trading green hydrogen and supplying ships with it. On the other hand, Fouad witnessed the launch of the E-Tadweer platform for electronic waste management within the SCZONE, to serve the industrial facilities within the authority in managing the resulting waste. The platform offers many benefits by achieving the element of sustainability in waste management, and benefits the investor, by giving him the opportunity to benefit from the outputs of the industrial process of materials and waste that can support other industries as raw materials that enter into their production.
