How big fossil-fuel-producing countries export emissions abroad | Explained

Black dust from a cement factory in Alexandria raises pollution concerns, sparking debate on fossil fuel exports and climate change.

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.