**Minister of Environment Reviews the Importance of Integrating Biodiversity Conservation Considerations When Financing Infrastructure at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Meetings in Sharm el-Sheikh**

Dr. Yasmin Fouad, Minister of Environment of Egypt, participated in the activities of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) meetings in Sharm el-Sheikh, which was held in the presence of H. E. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, as the main speaker in the session of integrating biodiversity conservation considerations when financing infrastructure, in the presence of the minister of Finance of the state of Tonga and a number of representatives of banks, such as the European Investment Bank, the Export-Import Bank of China and the Asian Investment Bank in the infrastructure category.

In her speech, Dr. Fouad reviewed the importance of integrating biodiversity conservation considerations when financing infrastructure, especially with the great economic importance of ecosystem services and nature for African and Asian countries, which increases the importance of preserving natural capital, which helps generate an economic value of up to 44 trillion dollars, more than half of the global GDP. She also highlighted the increasing climate risks and their effects on investment, as well as financial risks associated with nature in relation to infrastructure investments.

Dr. Fouad also spoke about the opportunities and challenges related to nature, including the material risks arising from the degradation of nature, the loss of ecosystem services and the incompatibility of economic actors with measures to reduce the negative effects on nature associated with infrastructure. She pointed out that the current and future infrastructure may interfere with protected areas, environmental and social dimensions, and was guided by the tourism sector, which depends in many places on coral reefs, the excessive use of which leads to a decrease in investment opportunities in the tourism sector.

The minister stressed that the importance of switching to taking into account the dimension of biodiversity in infrastructure increased after the world agreed on this, and with Egypt chairing the cop14 biodiversity conference, she assumed the task of leading the design of a global framework for biodiversity beyond 2020, ensuring the involvement of the private sector and reaching a financial design for nature-friendly biodiversity and setting more applicable goals, leading to the declaration of the global framework at the recent COP15 biodiversity conference.

Dr. Fouad also pointed out that there are many opportunities to include the private sector in the conservation of biodiversity, which requires more innovation, creating supply and demand mechanisms, and moving towards the rapid implementation of biodiversity conservation standards and considerations to maintain momentum among investors and the financial sector.

The minister of Environment pointed out that a number of organized government measures have been taken, including the alignment between the visions of the central bank and financial men with the global framework for biodiversity and national biodiversity strategies, which were launched in Montreal at the United Nations conference on biodiversity (COP15), in addition to providing the opportunity to finance the private sector for nature by encouraging multilateral development banks and international financing institutions for green infrastructure through natural capital management through innovative mechanisms such as mixed financing, and searching for best practices to reduce risks for the private sector by providing financing opportunities and providing a supportive climate for At the national level.