Egypt’s Minister of State for Environmental Affairs Dr. Laila Iskandar released plans to form a strategy to make El Gouna a carbon-neutral city.
The self-contained city, started by Orascom Hotels & Development (Orascom Development subsidiary) SamihSawiris, is located on 10 km of beach on the Red Sea coast with over 20,000 residents. The city is one of the only environmentally-conscious areas within Egypt, with management working in collaboration with hotels, business owners, residents, and visitors to create a sustainable environment. The Movenpick Resort & Spa El Gouna and Three Corners Ocean View hotels were awarded Travelife certificates while the Movenpick was also awarded the Green Globe certificate. The city was also the first to pilot the Green Star Hotel Initiative, which began in 2007, and has spread into a national roll-out as of 2012.
HishamZaazou, Egyptian Minister of Tourism, said: "El Gouna will be ready to obtain the title of first African, carbon-neutral city soon and we will be working on implementing this project in other Egyptian cities." However, Egypt is not the first African country to announce plans for a carbon-neutral city. US architect Gary Heathcote announced in 2010 that he was designing a “green city” in Ghana that would rely on renewable energy and recycling for its creation. A month after the Ghanaian announcement, Nigeria also released plans to make its capital Abuja a green city.
Egypt was once poised to hold the world’s first ISCC plant, but with the instability that came after the 2011 revolution, the project was stalled allowing Morocco to take the title. While El Gouna has made several sustainable reforms, the current political climate in Egypt could delay such a project as the continent’s first carbon-neutral city.
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