Egypt achieves surplus in electricity sector, witnesses large investments: Int'l Energy Agency

CAIRO - 14 February 2022: Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, said that the Egyptian state has achieved success in benefiting from gas assets, and the great transformation in the developed electricity market

 

Birol explained that Egypt was able to achieve a surplus in electricity after the deficit, and increased support and reliance on solar energy, which contributed to attracting a large amount of investments.

 

He added, during his speech at the opening of the Egypt International Petroleum Conference and Exhibition, in the presence of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi: "There are wonderful success stories achieved by the electricity sector in Egypt... and one of the defining challenges of the world today is climate and climate change, and Egypt was chosen to organize the climate conference to represent Africa, which is a great responsibility." 

 

He announced  that Egypt officially joined the agency as a member.

 

Birol praised Egypt's remarkable success stories, adding that Egypt, Africa and the world are at a defining moment in terms of energy and climate, according to a statement from the ministry.

 

He affirmed full support for Egypt in light of its hosting of the COP27 global climate summit and its leadership of the African continent to come up with decisions from the summit that suit the continent, which suffers from great challenges represented in the window for electricity and cooking by primitive means that result in disasters.

 

He also referred to a number of indicators on the situation in Africa, and the suffering of access to energy for its population, as he explained that the volume of solar energy production in sub-Saharan Africa is equivalent to half of that produced by Belgium alone, and that Mozambique, for example, has less than 40% of them have electricity despite its gas discoveries.

 

"This shows that the world still needs oil and gas, and that we must address climate change, focus on innovation, find modern technologies for storing carbon, and develop a sophisticated strategy for that,” he added.

 

He pointed out the importance of having a unified vision for the African continent to shift to energy and investment that draws the world's attention to Egypt during the World Climate Summit next November.