Black mud coats streets and collects on rooftops within the neighborhood 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.
“Each night time, we see particles falling from their chimneys. Underneath road lights, you’ll be able to clearly see the mud raining down,” mentioned Mostafa Mahmoud, a grocery retailer proprietor within the Wadi al-Qamar neighborhood.
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. Currently, increasingly more of the area’s coal is coming from the US, in response to U.S. export information.
Fossil gas exports have been a scorching matter on the United Nations local weather convention in Baku this yr, with activists and delegates from some climate-vulnerable international locations arguing nations ought to be held accountable for the air pollution they ship abroad — usually to poor creating nations — within the type of oil, gasoline 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 decreasing nationwide ranges of planet-warming greenhouse gasoline emissions. However it doesn’t impose such necessities for emissions generated from fossil fuels they drill, mine and ship elsewhere.
That has allowed international locations like the US, Norway, Australia and others to say they’re making progress towards worldwide local weather objectives whereas additionally producing and exporting fossil fuels at breakneck tempo, mentioned Invoice Hare, co-founder of Local weather Motion Tracker, an unbiased scientific undertaking that tracks authorities local weather motion.
“Most of those fossil-fuel-exporting international locations can get to look good with their home local weather motion,” he mentioned on the sidelines of the COP29 convention in Baku this week. “Their exported emissions are another person’s downside.”
U.S. fossil gas exports — together with coal, oil, gasoline and refined fuels — led to over 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide equal emissions in different international locations in 2022, in response to a calculation carried out by Local weather Motion Tracker and verified by Reuters utilizing information from the Worldwide Vitality Company. That’s equal to a couple of third of U.S. home emissions, the information confirmed.
A yearslong drilling increase has made the U.S. the world’s high oil and gasoline producer, whereas strong demand has lifted its coal exports for 4 years operating, in response to information from the U.S. Vitality Info Administration (EIA).
Requested how Washington squares its local weather ambitions with its fossil gas manufacturing and exports, U.S. President Joe Biden’s local weather adviser, Ali Zaidi, mentioned robust power output was wanted to maintain shopper costs low throughout a transition to cleaner fuels.
“I do not assume there may be social license for a decarbonization playbook that places upward value stress for retail customers within the market,” Zaidi mentioned.
Incoming president Donald Trump, a local weather change skeptic, has mentioned he desires to additional increase the nation’s fossil gas manufacturing.
For different producers, greenhouse gasoline emissions from fossil gas exports generally outweigh home emissions, Local weather Motion Tracker mentioned.
That was true for Norway, Australia and Canada in 2022, the newest yr for which information is offered for all international locations analyzed. Reuters obtained unique entry to the calculations.
Norway’s Ministry of Local weather and Setting mentioned it’s as much as different nations to handle their very own carbon footprints.
“Every nation is liable for decreasing its personal emissions,” the ministry mentioned in an announcement to Reuters.
Officers on the atmosphere 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 gasoline use, saying, “They higher have a look at themselves.”
Cement and brickmakers
Most U.S. gasoline exports now go to European international locations in search of to scale back dependence on Russia, whereas China has turn into one of many high patrons of U.S. crude and coal, in response to 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 almost 7% from the identical interval a yr in the past, the information 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 mentioned in a current report.
“These clients worth the excessive warmth content material of U.S. thermal coal, which makes their manufacturing operations extra environment friendly,” the report mentioned.
In the meantime, U.S. home coal use has been sliding as low-cost pure gasoline and subsidies for renewables like photo voltaic and wind drive coal-fired energy plant closures, extending a greater than 15-year decline in greenhouse gasoline emissions.
Egypt’s cement business has relied on imported coal for almost a decade, since persistent pure gasoline shortages pressured many factories to search for options, mentioned 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 yr, in response to information from the London Inventory Alternate Group.
Russia equipped many of the relaxation, 2.1 million metric tons. Its atmosphere 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 help an business central to its financial improvement plans is dangerous to the atmosphere and well being of communities like Wadi al-Qamar.
Utilizing information from the Alexandria plant’s emissions-monitoring system, researchers from Egypt’s Al-Azhar College, Cairo College and atmosphere 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 gasoline to coal because the dominant gas result in elevated emissions and concentrations of complete suspended particulates (TSP), nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. The concentrations had been principally inside authorized limits, nevertheless.
Egypt’s greenhouse gasoline emissions from burning fossil fuels rose by greater than a fifth within the decade led to 2022, hitting 263 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, in response to information from the International Carbon Funds, a undertaking led by Britain’s Exeter College.
Most of those emissions got here from gasoline and oil, which stay Egypt’s major power sources. Coal accounted for 3.4% of the 2022 complete, 9 million metric tons.
The federal government dedicated in 2021 to part out using coal and has requested firms that use it to introduce extra renewable sources into their power combine. However Heba Maatouk, a spokesperson for Egypt’s atmosphere ministry, mentioned there was inadequate provide of options, equivalent to refuse-derived gas (RDF) comprised of flamable trash.
“If firms can’t get the RDF, they will not cease working and can use coal to keep away from losses,” Maatouk mentioned.
Authorized battles
Decarbonizing the cement business is a problem, significantly in poorer creating nations like Egypt, as a result of it requires huge quantities of power, and applied sciences to maintain emissions from the ambiance are costly.
In his COP29 tackle final week, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly mentioned his nation’s plans to spice up renewable power to 42% of its energy combine by 2030 rely on international help.
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, mentioned Hoda Nasrallah, a lawyer for the Egyptian Initiative for Private Rights (EIPR).
In 2016, neighborhood members backed by EIPR requested an administrative court docket 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 response to 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 an announcement issued by its group company communications director, Lydia Yannakopoulou, the corporate mentioned 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 mentioned 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 had been inside authorized limits.
Nasrallah mentioned legal professionals representing the neighborhood imagine the committee was headed by an organization worker and have taken their case to Egypt’s highest administrative court docket in Cairo.
Neither facet offered a replica of the committee’s report, and Reuters couldn’t independently confirm their assertions.
A ruling within the case is predicted 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 manufacturing facility shouldn’t be right here,” he advised Reuters. “We must always keep, and they need to go away.”
