Parliament Diaries| A missed storm warning, and a Parliament fast asleep

The thunderstorm that blindsided Alexandria early Saturday—off-season, unexpected, and violent—left the city shaken. Ten buildings partially collapsed. University and school exams were postponed. Streets flooded. Panic spread. And still, not one of Alexandria’s MPs used a single parliamentary tool to investigate government response despite early warning, or to ask how the city might brace for what’s coming next.

The silence from Alexandria representatives is difficult to ignore. In a moment that laid bare human and infrastructural costs of climate change, the only parliamentary action came from two voices: one briefing request from Reform and Development Party MP Mahmoud Essam—Alexandria’s lone exception—and a question from the Wafd party MP Ayman Mehasseb.

A coincidence, not a plan

In contrast, the Senate appeared more responsive—though only by coincidence. This week’s agenda, scheduled in advance, happened to include several environmental motions, including a public discussion request from MP Mahmoud Elkott of the Parties’ Youth Leaders Coordination Committee concerning the Environment Ministry’s climate adaptation plans for coastal regions.

The timing gave the impression that the Senate was reacting to the storm and its implications. The chamber seized the moment.

In Monday’s general session, Elkott acknowledged the odd timing of the storm. “What happened in Alexandria two days ago is highly unusual for this time of year,” he said, noting that rising temperatures are distorting weather patterns and accelerating climate volatility.

He warned that the pace of climate change in the Mediterranean is outstripping global trends. “Studies show that the current average temperature—both on land and at sea—across the Mediterranean is 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels,” Elkot said. “The year-on-year increase exceeds the global average. This demands regional and international cooperation to step up mitigation efforts.”

Familiar warnings, too late

Despite the force and truth of these remarks, the Senate’s discussion unfolded at a remove from the actual crisis—years-old studies have long predicted Alexandria’s vulnerability to sea level rise. Deputy Speaker Bahaa Eldin Abou Shokka warned that delay in addressing climate change would lead to widespread desertification and crop failures.

He cited the absence of proper pre-storm measures and asked what would happen if such events became the new norm. Republican People’s Party bloc leader Ehab Wahba, for his part, posed a question to the environment minister “Is what happened in Alexandria directly related to climate change?”

The question hung in the air—not because of its complexity, but because of its timing. For years, study after study has warned that Alexandria is among the world’s most at-risk coastal cities. As far back as 2020, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change/IPCC stated that both Alexandria and the entire Nile Delta are facing existential threats unless urgent action is taken to protect coastlines and infrastructure.

“It wasn’t a surprise”

In the same session, environment minister Yasmine Fouad addressed the chamber. “What happened in Alexandria wasn’t a surprise,” she said. “We knew it was coming. Believe me, even though we were all shocked.”

That contradiction was telling.

Fouad went on to defend the government’s climate efforts, pointing to the investment of 8–9 billion pounds (approx. $165–185 million) by the Irrigation Ministry over recent years to fortify the coasts of Alexandria, Damietta, Rosetta, Kafr El-Sheikh, and Marsa Matrouh. “Had those measures not been taken, the outcome would have been much worse,” she said.

She likened the storm to the heatwaves that have blanketed Cairo in recent years. In her view, Alexandria’s disaster response succeeded in preventing a “complete paralysis.” But the images of submerged tunnels and immobilized traffic told a different story.

While Fouad praised a 2020 national plan to track climate shifts across governorates, residents witnessed a paralyzed city. There were no public alerts. Not a single post on the Alexandria Governorate’s Facebook page warned of the storm.

A political stress test

The government has long touted its National Climate Change Strategy 2050, which aims to embed climate considerations in economic and development policies. Indeed, Egypt played a key diplomatic role at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, where it helped broker a historic agreement on a Loss and Damage Fund to support vulnerable countries.

But this victory has since been overshadowed by the US withdrawal from the fund’s board—and from the Paris Agreement itself. A retreat that illustrates just how fragile international commitments can be.

What happened in Alexandria was not a “summer storm” out of season. It was a political and technical stress test for a state that claims to be climate-ready, and for a Parliament that largely looked the other way. The Senate engaged—by coincidence. The House remained silent.

And while Egypt seeks to amplify its regional and global role in climate negotiations, the real measure of its credibility may rest on something far more local: whether it can link daily disasters to the global climate battle—and speak to the climate funding countries with the authority of one on the front lines, rather than a government clinging to talking points as the waters rise.