SCALA Egypt

Egypt ratified the Paris Agreement in 2017 and submitted its NDC, focusing on agriculture, water resources, energy, and land management as priority areas. The NDC pledges to reduce CO2 emissions by 20 percent by 2030 from a baseline of 250Mt CO2. Mitigation targets for the agriculture and land-use sectors include recycling agricultural waste and manure, and establishing a national MRV system. The NDC also outlines Adaptation Action Packages for the most vulnerable sectors, including agriculture. 

A GCF-financed NAP Readiness project, implemented by UNDP, is advancing Egypt's NAP process. This work focuses on improving institutional and technical capacity for adaptation planning, examining climate risks, integrating adaptation into national and sectoral budgeting, and increasing investment in adaptation actions. 

Egypt faces several barriers in achieving its agriculture climate goals. Policymakers and technical experts need stronger understanding of climate change impacts and the skills to design effective adaptation interventions. Institutional gaps also affect the functioning of MRV systems for tracking mitigation and adaptation progress in the agriculture and land-use sectors. Limited financial resources and budget allocations dedicated to adaptation actions remain a persistent challenge. 

To overcome these barriers, Egypt is working to build institutional coordination and capacity on climate risk management. The government has begun preparing a NAP framework, which includes assessing capacity gaps, conducting national climate risk and vulnerability assessments, identifying sectoral adaptation priorities, and mapping long-term adaptation financing options. 

In Egypt, SCALA supports adaptation planning in the agriculture sector under the NAP process, with strong links to monitoring systems for agriculture and water. The programme focuses on smallholder farmers and climate-resilient practices across key sub-sectors. 

A deep dive into the livestock and dairy value chains — covering more than 1,400 farmers — identified priority measures such as resilient breeds, improved animal management, and better manure management. A gender assessment revealed that women produce 37.5 percent of agricultural value in these sectors but face barriers including limited access to credit and restricted decision-making power. 

At the request of the Ministry of Agriculture, SCALA launched a vulnerability assessment in the Northern Delta, compiling over 55 indicators and preparing maps to directly inform the NAP and attract climate investment. 

SCALA supported the launch of the nationwide National Social Dialogue on Climate Change. Targeted dialogues on food security and biodiversity have engaged more than 500 participants — farmers, women, youth and civil society — ensuring grassroots voices shape the NAP and future NDC updates. 

With the private sector, SCALA held round table discussions, completed a market study, and ran consultations on livestock and dairy value chains. The results showed that some climate-smart livestock practices require low capital costs — a strong signal for private investment. Proposed solutions include blended finance, low-interest loans and carbon market opportunities. These findings are now informing a GCF concept note. 

Progress and prospects 

Monitoring frameworks for agriculture and water have been established as part of the NAP development process. The agriculture framework links NAP targets to 412 indicators. A water sector framework was developed with UNESCO, including a roadmap for integration into the national NAP monitoring system. 

A national Early Warning System for climate risks is under development. A tailored system for smallholder farmers, created with the World Food Programme, has been validated and is ready for scaling. 

An AI-driven analysis of alignment between Egypt's NDC, NBSAP and NAP targets is underway, helping strengthen policy coherence and guide finance mobilization.