News stories by Cam McGrath* - IPS/IFEJ

Environmentalists have called for more efforts to protect the argun palm, a rare desert tree prized by the ancient Egyptians that is on the verge of extinction.

The midday sun punishes a group of veiled women as they wait in line to fill their buckets and jerrycans. They have travelled on foot to a rusty tap on the outskirts of Cairo that gushes irrigation water never intended for human consumption.

After four hours on the Nile in a rowboat with his two sons, fisher Hussein Abdel Malek tallies the morning catch: a plastic water bottle, an empty juice box, a half dozen plastic bags and two small tilapia.

Initiatives to reduce Egypt's greenhouse gas emissions could get a big push if world leaders and environment officials meeting in Copenhagen for climate talks that start Monday agree to maintain or enhance the carbon trading framework.

With oil and gas reserves running dry, the most populous country in the Arab world is eyeing wind power as a solution to its looming energy crunch.

Egypt's pollution problem is a potential goldmine of foreign revenue - if the country can tap into the lucrative international carbon trading market.