Climate change profile: Egypt

The Netherlands designed climate change profiles to help integrate climate actions into development cooperation policies and activities. The profiles aim to give insight in climate change effects and impacts; the policies, priorities and commitments of the countries concerned; and key climate-relevant activities that are financed with international assistance.

This profile indicates that Egypt is highly vulnerable to climate change due to the dependence of its large and growing population on the Nile River for fresh water and its long coastline, which is already experiencing sea level rise. With 98% of its population living on 4% of its total land area in the Nile Valley and Delta, the largest oasis of the Sahara Desert, the future of Egypt is directly linked to the flow of the Nile River and its endangered delta. As a threat multiplier, climate change will amplify the demographic, economic, and political pressures on Egypt’s stability.