|
The use of environmental and
renewable energy technologies are strongly encouraged by the
Government of Egypt. The Egyptian Ministry of Power and
Electricity included the use of renewable energies in its
national energy planning as early as in the 1980s. The New
and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) was founded in 1986;
this arm of the Ministry of Power and Electricity acts as a
focal point for expanding efforts to introduce and develop
solar, biomass and wind power generation. The Authority's
goal is to increase the proportion of power generated by
renewable energy resources – excluding hydro energy power,
which cannot be extended any further – to three percent by
the year 2010. Egypt is an active member of REN 21, the
Renewable Energy Policy Network created at the Bonn 2004
Renewable Energies Conference. In addition, Egypt has hosted
the third Middle East and North Africa Renewable Energies
Conference in June 2006.
Providers of other environmental technologies such as water
treatment and waste management systems will also benefit
from the government's increasing concern for
environmentally-friendly production. The first Environmental
Protection Law was enacted in 1994 (Law 4) under the
Environmental Action Plan (EAP). Thanks to the pressure of a
growing environmental movement, the Egyptian Ministry of
State for the Environment was established in 1997. Since
then, the government provides strong incentives for the
introduction of cleaner production technologies. All new
industrial projects, for example, have to be evaluated on
the basis of an Environmental Assessment Plan. The second
National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) was ratified in
2002. The plan recognizes that Egyptian exports can only be
competitive if they are produced environmentally-friendly.
The measures proposed under this plan, including
public-private partnerships for up-grading production
technologies, setting up an integrated waste management
system and reforming the production and delivery of drinking
water, are scheduled to be completed in 2017.
|
|
