By Mohamed Ezz and Valerie Volcovici
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt/BAKU (Reuters) – Black mud coats streets and collects on rooftops within the neighbourhood adjoining a sprawling cement manufacturing facility within the Egyptian metropolis of Alexandria.
Activists and native residents accuse the plant operated by the Alexandria Portland Cement Firm (APCC), a subsidiary of Greece’s Titan Cement, of fouling the air by burning coal.
“Every night, we see particles falling from their chimneys. Under street lights, you can clearly see the dust raining down,” stated Mostafa Mahmoud, a grocery retailer proprietor within the Wadi al-Qamar neighbourhood.
Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the assertion. Titan Cement says the plant’s emissions are inside authorized limits, and it plans to scale back its use of coal in coming years.
Like many cement producers in Egypt and throughout North Africa, the manufacturing facility makes use of imported coal to fireplace its kilns. Recently, increasingly more of the area’s coal is coming from the USA, in accordance with U.S. export knowledge.
Fossil gasoline exports have been a scorching subject on the United Nations local weather convention in Baku this 12 months, with activists and delegates from some climate-vulnerable international locations arguing nations ought to be held accountable for the air pollution they ship abroad – typically to poor growing nations – within the type of oil, fuel and coal. Some are in search of to get the query of how to do that onto the agenda at future local weather summits.
A landmark settlement reached in Paris in 2015 to struggle local weather change requires international locations to set targets and report on progress lowering nationwide ranges of planet-warming greenhouse fuel emissions. But it surely doesn’t impose such necessities for emissions generated from fossil fuels they drill, mine and ship elsewhere.
That has allowed international locations like the USA, Norway, Australia and others to say they’re making progress towards worldwide local weather targets whereas additionally producing and exporting fossil fuels at breakneck tempo, stated Invoice Hare, co-founder of Local weather Motion (WA:) Tracker, an impartial scientific mission that tracks authorities local weather motion.
“Most of these fossil-fuel-exporting countries can get to look good with their domestic climate action,” he stated on the sidelines of the COP29 convention in Baku this week. “Their exported emissions are someone else’s problem.”
U.S. fossil gasoline exports – together with coal, oil, fuel and refined fuels – led to over 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide equal emissions in different international locations in 2022, in accordance with a calculation carried out by Local weather Motion Tracker and verified by Reuters utilizing knowledge from the Worldwide Vitality Company. That’s equal to a couple of third of U.S. home emissions, the info confirmed.
A years-long drilling increase has made the U.S. the world’s high oil and fuel producer, whereas sturdy demand has lifted its coal exports for 4 years operating, in accordance with knowledge from the U.S. Vitality Data Administration (EIA).
Requested how Washington squares its local weather ambitions with its fossil gasoline manufacturing and exports, President Joe Biden’s local weather adviser, Ali Zaidi, stated robust vitality output was wanted to maintain client costs low throughout a transition to cleaner fuels.
“I don’t think there is social license for a decarbonisation playbook that puts upward price pressure for retail consumers in the marketplace,” Zaidi informed Reuters.
Incoming president Donald Trump, a local weather change sceptic, has stated he needs to additional increase the nation’s fossil gasoline manufacturing.
For different producers, greenhouse fuel emissions from fossil gasoline exports generally outweigh home emissions, Local weather Motion Tracker stated.
That was true for Norway, Australia and Canada in 2022, the newest 12 months for which knowledge is out there for all international locations analysed. Reuters obtained unique entry to the calculations.
Norway’s Ministry of Local weather and Atmosphere stated it’s as much as different nations to handle their very own carbon footprints.
“Each country is responsible for reducing its own emissions,” the ministry stated in a press release to Reuters.
Officers on the surroundings and local weather ministries of Canada and Australia didn’t remark.
Addressing the summit in Azerbaijan, host President Ilham Aliyev accused some Western politicians of double requirements for lecturing his authorities about its oil and fuel use, saying, “They better look at themselves.”
CEMENT AND BRICKMAKERS
Most U.S. fuel exports now go to European international locations in search of to scale back dependence on Russia, whereas China has develop into one of many high patrons of and coal, in accordance with the EIA figures. America’s largest progress marketplace for coal, nevertheless, is North Africa.
U.S. coal mines exported round 52.5 million quick tons globally within the first half of 2024, up practically 7% from the identical interval a 12 months in the past, the info confirmed.
A lot of the rise was pushed by cement and brickmakers in Egypt and Morocco, which collectively took in additional than 5 million quick tons over the interval, the EIA stated in a current report.
“These customers value the high heat content of U.S. thermal coal, which makes their manufacturing operations more efficient,” the report stated.
In the meantime, U.S. home coal use has been sliding as low cost and subsidies for renewables like photo voltaic and wind drive coal-fired energy plant closures, extending a greater than 15-year decline in greenhouse fuel emissions.
Egypt’s cement business has relied on imported coal for practically a decade, since persistent pure fuel shortages pressured many factories to search for options, stated Ahmed Shireen Korayem, vice chairman and board member on the Arab Union for Cement and Constructing Supplies, a regional business physique.
The U.S. is Egypt’s largest provider, accounting for 3.1 million of the 6.6 million metric tons of coal imported this 12 months, in accordance with knowledge from the London Inventory Change Group (LON:).
Russia provided a lot of the relaxation, 2.1 million metric tons. Its surroundings ministry referred inquiries to the international ministry, which didn’t instantly remark.
Activists argue that the Egyptian authorities’s determination to raise a longstanding ban on coal imports in 2015 to assist an business central to its financial growth plans is dangerous to the surroundings and well being of communities like Wadi al-Qamar.
Utilizing knowledge from the Alexandria plant’s emissions-monitoring system, researchers from Egypt’s Al-Azhar College, Cairo College and surroundings ministry simulated the dispersion of polluting mud and poisonous gases between 2014 and 2020.
The research, revealed within the Journal of Environmental Well being Science and Engineering in 2022, concluded that the shift from utilizing pure fuel to coal because the dominant gasoline result in elevated emissions and concentrations of whole suspended particulates (TSP), nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. The concentrations have been principally inside authorized limits, nevertheless.
Egypt’s greenhouse fuel emissions from burning fossil fuels rose by greater than a fifth within the decade resulted in 2022, hitting 263 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, in accordance with knowledge from the International Carbon Finances, a mission led by Britain’s Exeter College.
Most of those emissions got here from fuel and oil, which stay Egypt’s predominant vitality sources. Coal accounted for 3.4% of the 2022 whole, 9 million metric tons.
The federal government dedicated in 2021 to section out the usage of coal and has requested corporations that use it to introduce extra renewable sources into their vitality combine. However Heba Maatouk, a spokesperson for Egypt’s surroundings ministry, stated there was inadequate provide of options, similar to refuse-derived gasoline (RDF) created from flamable trash.
“If companies cannot get the RDF, they won’t stop operating and will use coal to avoid losses,” Maatouk informed Reuters.
LEGAL BATTLES
Decarbonising the cement business is a problem, significantly in poorer growing nations like Egypt, as a result of it requires huge quantities of vitality, and applied sciences to maintain emissions from the environment are costly.
In his COP29 handle final week, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly stated his nation’s plans to spice up renewable vitality to 42% of its energy combine by 2030 rely upon international assist.
Residents within the Wadi al-Qamar neighborhood have been engaged in a chronic authorized battle with the Alexandria cement manufacturing facility, APCC, submitting a number of lawsuits, stated Hoda Nasrallah, a lawyer for the Egyptian Initiative for Private Rights (EIPR).
In 2016, group members backed by EIPR requested an administrative courtroom in Alexandria to overturn amendments to the nation’s environmental laws that enable heavy industries to make use of coal on well being and environmental grounds, in accordance with the rights group.
APCC officers didn’t reply to a request for remark made by way of a authorized consultant.
Titan Cement confirmed that the manufacturing facility sources coal from the U.S. however didn’t elaborate.
In a press release issued by its group company communications director, Lydia Yannakopoulou, the corporate stated the plant had not violated any legal guidelines, had made 40 million euros in investments in air pollution controls since 2010, and deliberate to scale back its use of coal in coming years because it ramps up use of options.
She stated a court-appointed committee of specialists from Alexandria College concluded there have been no environmental violations ensuing from the corporate’s emissions or operational processes, and the emissions have been inside authorized limits.
Nasrallah stated attorneys representing the group consider the committee was headed by an organization worker and have taken their case to Egypt’s highest administrative courtroom in Cairo.
Neither aspect offered a replica of the committee’s report, and Reuters couldn’t independently confirm their assertions.
A ruling within the case is anticipated in December.
In the meantime, frustration is constructing amongst close by residents like Hisham al-Akary, who says his household has lived in Wadi al-Qamar for generations and can’t afford to maneuver.
“This factory shouldn’t be here,” he informed Reuters. “We should stay, and they should leave.”
(Mohamed Ezz reported from Cairo and Valerie Volcovici from Baku. Modifying by Richard Valdmanis and Alexandra Zavis)
