Keele Research Repository

“Hayah Karima” or “Decent Life” is a national initiative that aims to improve the quality of life and provide better services in rural and unplanned settlements in Egypt within the framework of the Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt Vision 2030. This paper is based on a study that employed a transdisciplinary approach to identify barriers and pathways for low-carbon development in three of the most densely populated governorates in Egypt. The findings revealed the significant sustainability benefits of waste-toenergy and sludge-to-energy projects compared to other renewable energy resources. We evaluate the prospect of developing integrated decentralized plants to achieve SDGs and explore the potential of these plants in enabling a just sustainability and energy transition in the targeted settlements of “Hayah Karima”.