Egypt Financial Regulatory Authority publishes 2024 sustainability report highlighting launch of voluntary carbon market and its first carbon footprint measurement

The Egypt Financial Regulatory Authority released its 2024 annual sustainability report, setting out the measures taken during 2024 to support the shift to a greener economy, led by completing the legislative framework and officially launching a voluntary carbon market. The report also records the authority’s measurement of its own 2024 carbon footprint through a national specialised entity registered with the authority for monitoring, reporting and verification purposes. The report links the voluntary carbon market launch to nine regulatory decisions that established a regional regulatory framework and enabled market infrastructure including five registries and around six local and foreign verification and validation entities. It cites the registration of around 34 emissions-reduction projects from Egypt, Oman, Nepal, India and Bangladesh, covering more than 170,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, alongside efforts to promote the market domestically and internationally and expand climate-related financial instruments and issuance. Further steps described include amending the executive regulations of Egypt’s Capital Market Law to treat carbon emissions reduction certificates as a financial instrument, forming an oversight committee for carbon emissions reduction units, setting criteria for registering verification and validation entities, and issuing rules for listing and delisting carbon certificates on Egyptian exchanges. Standards for accrediting local voluntary carbon registries, and the approval of exchange trading and settlement rules for voluntary carbon certificates, are also set out.