Keywords

Energy/environment policy, GHG emissions, climate change, management of energy resources, renewable energy, energy efficiency, fuel switching to natural gas, energy prices reform, market barriers, Egypt.

Abstarct

It is of crucial importance to Egypt and most developing countries to make fundamental changes in the energy policies, so as to comply with environmental requirements and ensure a sustainable path for development. Without environmentally sound energy policies, the production and consumption of energy could be a major source of carbon dioxide emissions, leading potentially to global climate change, in addition to other adverse local environmental impacts and negative effects on human health.

This paper outlines Egypt's energy/environment policy framework. It highlights the energy situation in Egypt in terms of supply and demand, as well as energy and economy linkages through the year 2010. It demonstrates a developing country's success story of better management of indigenous energy resources while striving to meet domestic energy demand and secure sufficient oil exports earnings that are needed to finance economic development. With 93.5% dependence on fossil fuels, the environmental impacts of the current energy systems are important. The paper describes the policy framework within which a large number of policy initiatives have been successfully implemented to mitigate such impacts.

Energy efficiency, switching from petroleum products to natural gas, promotion of renewable energy development and use, and energy pricing reform are the key elements of this strategic policy framework.