Supporting Youth and Entrepreneurship in Facing Climate Change

Dr. Yasmin Fouad, Minister of Environment, participated in the launch of the Uni Green National Competition to find innovative solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change, funded by the European Union and implemented by the Life Makers Foundation and the Arab Academy for Science and Technology. This competition is a real model of partnership between the government, the private sector, civil society, and scientific research, to come together around an important issue at the global level and also for the Egyptian citizen.

The Minister of Environment stressed the role of scientific research in facing the challenge of climate change, pointing out that Egypt's hosting of COP27 last year and the launch of the 2050 National Climate Strategy launched the focus on the climate change file, through a symphony of work that was played at the conference with the participation of various parties. The Minister pointed to the active participation of youth and civil society in COP27, where 5,000 young people were trained before the conference on climate change, bringing the number of young people who were trained during and after the conference to 65,000 young people, and also working with 17,000 associations, in addition to cooperation with companies and the private sector to support young people to address the effects of climate change.

The Minister of Environment added that Egypt has completed its journey by participating in COP28 in Dubai a few days ago, to achieve more achievements in the climate file, including working to achieve a global goal of adaptation, and setting a target for the gradual transition to the elimination of fossil fuels, in addition to the most important achievement, which is the activation of the Loss and Damage Fund, which was launched last year from Egypt.

The Minister of Environment explained that raising awareness among young people, especially school students, is one of the most important efforts that the ministry has focused on over the past four years, through working to integrate the concepts of climate change and biodiversity into the educational curricula for educational stages from the age of 6 to 16 years, and implementing interactive activities with students in government schools, and completing the loop by focusing on the post-university education stage in cooperation with the Supreme Council of Universities, to include the environmental sciences curriculum within other science curricula, and create curricula that focus on the rational management of natural resources in light of the changing vision of the world for the use of resources.