*

Fossil fuel exporters harm climate, pollute air, critics

say

*

US is growing coal supplier to North African cement

industry

*

Egypt says it needs financial support to clean up its

emissions

By Mohamed Ezz and Valerie Volcovici

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt/BAKU, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Black dust

coats streets and collects on rooftops in the neighbourhood

adjoining a sprawling cement factory in the Egyptian city of

Alexandria.

Activists and local residents accuse the plant operated by

the Alexandria Portland Cement Company (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,"

said Mostafa Mahmoud, a grocery store owner in the Wadi al-Qamar

neighbourhood.

Reuters could not independently verify the assertion.

Titan Cement says the plant's emissions are within legal limits,

and it plans to reduce its use of coal in coming years.

Like many cement manufacturers in Egypt and across North

Africa, the factory uses imported coal to fire its kilns.

Lately, more and more of the region's coal is coming from the

United States, according to U.S. export data.

Fossil fuel exports have been a hot topic at the United

Nations climate conference in Baku this year, with activists and

delegates from some climate-vulnerable countries arguing

nations should be held accountable for the pollution they send

overseas - often to poor developing nations - in the form of

oil, gas and coal. Some are seeking to get the question of how

to do this onto the agenda at future climate summits.

A landmark agreement reached in Paris in 2015 to fight

climate change requires countries to set targets and report on

progress reducing national levels of planet-warming greenhouse

gas emissions. But it does not impose such requirements for

emissions generated from fossil fuels they drill, mine and ship

elsewhere.

That has allowed countries like the United States, Norway,

Australia and others to say they are making progress toward

international climate goals while also producing and exporting

fossil fuels at breakneck pace, said Bill Hare, co-founder of

Climate Action Tracker, an independent scientific project that

tracks government climate action.

"Most of these fossil-fuel-exporting countries can get to

look good with their domestic climate action," he said on the

sidelines of the COP29 conference in Baku this week. "Their

exported emissions are someone else's problem."

U.S. fossil fuel exports - including coal, oil, gas and

refined fuels - led to over 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide

equivalent emissions in other countries in 2022, according to a

calculation carried out by Climate Action Tracker and verified

by Reuters using data from the International Energy Agency. That

is equivalent to about a third of U.S. domestic emissions, the

data showed.

A years-long drilling boom has made the U.S. the world's top

oil and gas producer, while robust demand has lifted its coal

exports for four years running, according to data from the U.S.

Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Asked how Washington squares its climate ambitions with its

fossil fuel production and exports, President Joe Biden's

climate adviser, Ali Zaidi, said strong energy output was needed

to keep consumer prices low during 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 told Reuters.

Incoming president Donald Trump, a climate change sceptic,

has said he wants to further boost the nation's fossil fuel

production.

For other producers, greenhouse gas emissions from fossil

fuel exports sometimes outweigh domestic emissions, Climate

Action Tracker said.

That was true for Norway, Australia and Canada in 2022, the

most recent year for which data is available for all countries

analysed. Reuters obtained exclusive access to the calculations.

Norway's Ministry of Climate and Environment said it is

up to other nations to manage their own carbon footprints.

"Each country is responsible for reducing its own

emissions," the ministry said in a statement to Reuters.

Officials at the environment and climate ministries of

Canada and Australia did not comment.

Addressing the summit in Azerbaijan, host President Ilham

Aliyev accused some Western politicians of double standards for

lecturing his government about its oil and gas use, saying,

"They better look at themselves."

CEMENT AND BRICKMAKERS

Most U.S. gas exports now go to European countries seeking

to reduce dependence on Russia, while China has become one of

the top buyers of U.S. crude and coal, according to the EIA

figures. America's biggest growth market for coal, however, is

North Africa.

U.S. coal mines exported around 52.5 million short tons

globally in the first half of 2024, up nearly 7% from the same

period a year ago, the data showed.

Much of the increase was driven by cement and brickmakers in

Egypt and Morocco, which together took in more than 5 million

short tons over the period, the EIA said in a recent report.

"These customers value the high heat content of U.S. thermal

coal, which makes their manufacturing operations more

efficient," the report said.

Meanwhile, U.S. domestic coal use has been sliding as cheap

natural gas and subsidies for renewables like solar and wind

drive coal-fired power plant closures, extending a more than

15-year decline in greenhouse gas emissions.

Egypt's cement industry has relied on imported coal for

nearly a decade, since persistent natural gas shortages forced

many factories to look for alternatives, said Ahmed Shireen

Korayem, vice chairman and board member at the Arab Union for

Cement and Building Materials, a regional industry body.

The U.S. is Egypt's largest supplier, accounting for 3.1

million of the 6.6 million metric tons of coal imported this

year, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group.

Russia supplied most of the rest, 2.1 million metric tons.

Its environment ministry referred questions to the foreign

ministry, which did not immediately comment.

Activists argue that the Egyptian government's decision to

lift a longstanding ban on coal imports in 2015 to support an

industry central to its economic development plans is harmful to

the environment and health of communities like Wadi al-Qamar.

Using data from the Alexandria plant's emissions-monitoring

system, researchers from Egypt's Al-Azhar University, Cairo

University and environment ministry simulated the dispersion of

polluting dust and toxic gases between 2014 and 2020.

The study

, published in the Journal of Environmental Health Science

and Engineering in 2022, concluded that the shift from using

natural gas to coal as the dominant fuel lead to increased

emissions and concentrations of total suspended particulates

(TSP), nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. The concentrations

were mostly within legal limits, however.

Egypt's greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels

rose by more than a fifth in the decade ended in 2022, hitting

263 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to data

from the Global Carbon Budget, a project led by Britain's Exeter

University.

Most of these emissions came from gas and oil, which remain

Egypt's main energy sources. Coal accounted for 3.4% of the 2022

total, 9 million metric tons.

The government committed in 2021 to phase out the use of

coal and has asked companies that use it to introduce more

renewable sources into their energy mix. But Heba Maatouk, a

spokesperson for Egypt's environment ministry, said there was

insufficient supply of alternatives, such as refuse-derived fuel

(RDF) made from combustible trash.

"If companies cannot get the RDF, they won't stop operating

and will use coal to avoid losses," Maatouk told Reuters.

LEGAL BATTLES

Decarbonising the cement industry is a challenge,

particularly in poorer developing nations like Egypt, because it

requires vast amounts of energy, and technologies to keep

emissions from the atmosphere are expensive.

In his COP29 address last week, Egyptian Prime Minister

Mostafa Madbouly said his country's plans to boost renewable

energy to 42% of its power mix by 2030 depend on foreign

support.

Residents in the Wadi al-Qamar neighborhood have been

engaged in a prolonged legal battle with the Alexandria cement

factory, APCC, filing multiple lawsuits, said Hoda Nasrallah, a

lawyer for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).

In 2016, community members backed by EIPR asked an

administrative court in Alexandria to overturn amendments to the

country's environmental regulations that allow heavy industries

to use coal on health and environmental grounds, according to

the rights group.

APCC officials did not respond to a request for comment made

through a legal representative.

Titan Cement confirmed that the factory sources coal from

the U.S. but did not elaborate.

In a statement issued by its group corporate communications

director, Lydia Yannakopoulou, the company said the plant had

not violated any laws, had made 40 million euros in investments

in pollution controls since 2010, and planned to reduce its use

of coal in coming years as it ramps up use of alternatives.

She said a court-appointed committee of experts from

Alexandria University concluded there were no environmental

violations resulting from the company's emissions or operational

processes, and the emissions were within legal limits.

Nasrallah said lawyers representing the community

believe the committee was headed by a company employee and have

taken their case to Egypt's highest administrative court in

Cairo.

Neither side provided a copy of the committee's report, and

Reuters could not independently verify their assertions.

A ruling in the case is expected in December.

Meanwhile, frustration is building among nearby

residents like Hisham al-Akary, who says his family has lived in

Wadi al-Qamar for generations and cannot afford to move.

"This factory shouldn't be here," he told Reuters. "We

should stay, and they should leave."

(Mohamed Ezz reported from Cairo and Valerie Volcovici from

Baku. Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Alexandra Zavis)