State committee to develop standards for coal use

Following an inter-ministerial meeting this Wednesday, government representatives proposed that Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb create a supreme council to develop regulations and standards for the use of coal in Egypt.

After months of debate, the government on April 2 announced that it would allow coal to be imported for industrial use, subject to strict environmental standards. The original announcement also emphasized that the government would require industry to use technology to reduce emissions, and that it would seek to power 40 percent of cement production with fuel  derived from municipal and agricultural waste “as soon as possible.”

According to a statement from the Ministry of Environment, minister Laila Iskandar met Wednesday with representatives from the ministries of health, tourism, finance and the interior to discuss regulations for the import, transport, storage and use of coal by the cement industry. The government aims to create standards in line with those used by the European Union and the World Health Organization.

The decision to allow industrial use of coal was taken against the advice of the Ministry of Environment, whose research on the subject strongly advised against allowing the fuel to be imported, citing detrimental effects on public health, the environment and Egypt’s energy sovereignty. The ministry of tourism, along with travel industry groups, also opposed the decision, claiming plans to import and burn fuel will make the country less appealing to tourists.

Plans to import the fuel were championed by the cement industry — which claims that energy shortages have hampered production — as well as government bodies including the ministries of industry and electricity. In a press statement, Minister of Trade and Industry Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour said that Egypt risked unemployment and political and social turmoil by refusing to allow coal as an alternative to natural gas.