Egypt's Contribution To Climate Change

As the world’s population from 2011–2050 is expected to increase from around 7 to 9.2 billion, the rate of monthly increase is around 6 million, with almost all growth existing in developing countries where natural and biological resources are already under great human pressure (El-Ramady et al., 2013). The parameters that are commonly used by meteorologists to measure daily weather phenomena are air temperature, precipitation, atmospheric pressure and humidity, wind speed, sunshine and cloud cover (FAO, 2008). Obviously, these parameters are not stable and can change from one time to another. Actually up to 2008, there was no internationally agreed definition of climate change. According to FAO (2008), it can refer to: (1) long-term changes

Egypt’s climate is semi-arid and characterized by hot dry summers, moderate winters and very little rainfall (Dadamouny, 2009), therefore most of the land can be classified as semi-desert or desert. The impacts of climate change are reflected not only by changes of the water cycle (Howard et al., 2010), but also increasing desertification, and higher mortality in many plant species that cannot tolerate high temperature and severe droughts. Another risk are less predictable, severe rainfalls which may lead to unpredictable water flows and recharge, more frequent droughts, floods, and changes in the capacity and nature of ground water stores (Stern 2006; Xu et al., 2007; Bates et. al., 2008). In addition, a rise in sea-level will increase the risks of permanent or seasonal saline intrusion into groundwater in South Sinai and the Nile river in its northern delta (Howard et al., 2010), affecting quality and potential usability of water sources for domestic, agricultural and industrial uses. Therefore, there is an urgent need to adapt current practices and to achieve greater resilience in water-using sectors to minimize adverse impacts. Such measures will be required to ensure the functioning of these sectors and have wider implications in terms of the ability of Egypt as well as other countries to cope with future climate changes. Moreover, serious consequences of climate change will impede all development sectors in Egypt. The most important repercussions include impacts on the water resources of the Nile River and groundwater, agricultural output, coastal resources and tourism. As the environmental conditions play