Presidential directives also called for reducing air pollution rates and improving quality of air by decreasing harmful carbon emissions and rationalizing consumption of fuel, along with upping growth rates, creating new job opportunities and boosting the macroeconomics structure in order to increase spending on raising living standards of citizens and offering quality services to them, he went on to say.

Maait's remarks came at a meeting of the world’s finance ministers to discuss global finance for climate action, held as part of the UN climate change conference (COP26) in Glasgow city, the UK, on Thursday.

Maait added the government aims to improve Egypt's competitive edge in the environmental performance index by raising public green investments it is financing to 50% by 2025.

Egypt is leading the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region toward green investment by providing sustainable financing for eco-friendly projects on all fronts, including housing, clean transportation, renewable energy, curbing pollution, adapting to climate change, energy efficiency and sustainable management of water and sanitation, according to him.