The “global warming” that has looked to severely threaten human life and safety as a result of climate change has the world in a panic. The countries of the world, particularly African countries, are facing the threat of climate change due to the distinctiveness of their geographical location.
Due to the majority of Egypt’s land being in semi-arid and desert regions, climate change poses a threat to both tourism and agriculture in the country. Egypt is also one of the nations that is thought to be most negatively impacted by climate change.
The climate change dilemma and its effects on many of the most important and prominent sectors of the Egyptian economy, particularly the agriculture and tourist industries, provide a significant challenge for Egypt.
One of the industries most impacted by the climate change challenge in Egypt is agriculture.
The sector’s capacity to combat the effects of climate change is limited, particularly for rural communities, which are among those most impacted by them due to the lack of infrastructure that can adapt to these fluctuations or deal with their detrimental effects. This is true whether through the adoption of proactive and preventive policies, through its capacity to diversify crops and planting seasons, or by introducing new methods of agriculture and irrigation that are more efficient.
According to a report published in August 2021 by the Egyptian Meteorological Authority, the summer of 2021 saw the highest temperatures in 5 years, with an average increase of 3 to 4 degrees Celsius. This forced the Egyptian government to implement more serious and successful programmes, policies, and initiatives in order to adapt to the upcoming climate changes and deal with their detrimental effects on various economic sectors.
According to a survey, Egypt’s coral reefs, in particular, suffer numerous challenges from climate change and above-average temperature rise. Since the northern Red Sea region is a safe environment for this sort of tourism due to the nature of the water and the predominant winds in that region, Egypt holds the top spot in terms of the highest countries in the lists of tourism based on coral reefs.
However, as a result of the global climate changes, Egypt is now one of the coastal nations at risk of losing a substantial amount of coral reef tourism profits, which implies that the tourism industry will incur significant losses when sea surface temperatures climb above the safe level. In addition to the risk posed by melting ice and rising Red Sea levels, which result in coral reefs living at greater depths and dying as a result of lack of light, there are also people who can live there.
In the same context, a number of beaches and tourist attractions may be at risk of flooding and heavy rains, which affects infrastructure naturally and results in the destruction of numerous tourism investments, including villages, hotels, and resorts along the Egyptian sea coast, which are valued at billions of dollars.
According to a report filed to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, even a half-meter increase in sea level might result in the sinking of nearly 500,000 acres of farmland. This will inevitably reduce the amount of agricultural production for numerous crops.
The General Authority for Meteorology reported that the unprecedented increase in summertime temperatures in Egypt in 2021 had an impact on crop productivity. Some fruit and vegetable crops saw productivity decline by more than 50%, exposing farmers to significant losses and consumers to a wave of price increases as a result of a lack of supply in comparison to demand.
Among the most notable crops impacted by the extreme heat wave that swept the nation were the mango and olive crops. The yield of olives decreased by 60% to 80% last year, which had an impact on Egypt’s position as the world’s top exporter of olives for the 2018–2019 growing season.
Mango exports from Egypt totaled more than 4 million tonnes between January and July 2021, according to the Minister of Agriculture, and mango exports came in last place with roughly 768 tonnes.
The hazards of climate change to Egypt’s agriculture and industries are particularly serious.
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