This week, Egypt began hosting the UN climate update summit (known as COP27). In the preparatory meetings, his government criticized the hypocrisy of countries with high emissions that fail to adequately address climate impacts. This complaint is fully justified.
But the undeniable messes of high-emitting countries do not alleviate the need to review Egypt’s environmental record. There is a very genuine threat that climate talks will not take place at the Sinai Peninsula hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh. This is not because there has been no independent environmental activism in Egypt, because Egypt’s repressive government has seriously limited this motion as part of its efforts to silence almost all civic and political activism, independent media, and freedom of expression.
The fact that very important environmental challenges cannot be blatantly debated is a huge challenge for Egypt. But the story of Egypt’s fierce anti-coal domestic activism will also be a sober point of mirroring image for diplomatic delegations at COP27, especially those that already have the ghost that progress on climate ambition requires silence on the human rights crisis in Egypt.
This week, Egypt began hosting the UN climate update summit (known as COP27). In the preparatory meetings, his government criticized the hypocrisy of countries with high emissions that fail to adequately address climate impacts. This complaint is fully justified.
But the undeniable messes of high-emitting countries do not alleviate the need to review Egypt’s environmental record. There is a very genuine threat that climate talks will not take place at the Sinai Peninsula hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh. This is not because there has been no independent environmental activism in Egypt, because Egypt’s repressive government has seriously limited this motion as part of its efforts to silence almost all civic and political activism, independent media, and freedom of expression.
The fact that very important environmental challenges cannot be blatantly debated is a huge challenge for Egypt. But the story of Egypt’s fierce anti-coal domestic activism will also be a sober point of mirroring image for diplomatic delegations at COP27, especially those that already have the ghost that progress on climate ambition requires silence on the human rights crisis in Egypt.
Fossil fuels (coal, oil and fuels) account for about 90% of Egypt’s total energy production.
Egypt burns coal for electricity for commercial production. Fossil fuels (coal, but also oil and fuel) account for around 90% of total energy production, and Egypt plans to increase oil and fuel production in particular. Public crusade opposed to the production of fossil fuels from the country itself. It’s too dangerous.
This has not been the case. In 2012, Egyptians Against Coal emerged as a broad crusade in reaction to the government’s interest in reintegrating coal into the country’s energy mix. In many ways, it was the culmination of fashionable Egyptian environmentalism.
After the 2011 revolution, Egypt experienced situations of high economic demand and energy shortages. In 2013, the post-revolutionary government of then-President Mohamed Morsi, eager for even more normal domestic blackouts, halved fuel materials for cement plants, which fed about 20 percent of domestic combustible materials.
Egypt’s cement industry, one of the largest in the region, has begun pushing for alternatives. It wasn’t just any advertising industry: the government and the military have owned many factories for a long time, but it’s hard to know to what extent.
That’s when an organization of 10 organizations focused primarily on the environment and public health created Egyptians Against Coal. The move exploited long-standing considerations about air quality, which was already notoriously deficient at many cement plants in Greater Cairo, Alexandria and other cities. A report through Egypt’s Ministry of Environment estimated that coal use in the cement industry can charge Egypt between $3 billion and $5 billion a year in fitness charges, basically due to respiratory illnesses.
The activists were also motivated by the opaque nature of the cement industry’s defense. “Coal for them, bill for us,” a protest slogan, alluding to the sentiment that only a few wealthy businessmen would benefit from a settlement that would hurt many people.
From 2012 to mid-2014, the crusade was a great success. It has received support from a wide variety of actors, from tour operators involved in potential damage to the Red Sea coast, where some cement plants are located, to Egypt’s tough medical union. and grassroots activists across the country. The leading environmentalists gave the impression on television and even appeared definitively in public newspapers.
In July 2013, the army forcibly expelled Morsi. Egyptians opposed to coal also had the support of Laila Iskander, who was appointed environment minister through the interim government that month. and released a report on the health consequences of coal, which was later removed without explanation from the ministry’s website.
The government of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who had been defense minister under Morsi (and became president in June 2014), began relentlessly persecuting critics, dissidents, journalists, human rights defenders, and political activists. Egyptian environmental motion has not been pardoned
As the government intensified its crackdown on independent civil society, freedom of expression, and the judiciary, the coal crusade began to lose steam. suddenly they started abandoning the crusade,” an environmental activist told Human Rights Watch. “One of them harassed security at the airport, so he resigned. “
A national coal court case has stalled. Mentions of Egyptians opposing coal have disappeared from the media. And public protests, once forceful and frequent, are too dangerous.
In April 2014, Sisi’s government made the decision to allow the use of coal for heavy industry. Soon after, Iskander was fired from the workplace and replaced by Khaled Fahmy, who was also Iskander’s predecessor. Some activists called him the “coal minister. ” for his strong help to fuel his first term in government.
The Egyptian government prevents news hunters and advocates from coming forward on sensitive environmental issues.
Fast forward to today. The Egyptian government will ban bloodhounds and news advocates from dealing with sensitive environmental issues. They are prohibited from reading the effect on local communities and environmental registration of fossil fuel operations, including production, refining and export operations. They are also forbidden to discover the impact of Egypt’s vast and opaque commercial activities, such as the destructive bureaucracy of quarries, water bottling plants and some cement plants, as well as so-called national infrastructure projects, such as a new administrative capital. who are related to the president’s workplace or the military.
Meanwhile, Egypt has moved a few steps away from fossil fuel production and use and instead ramps up oil and methane production, hoping to become one of the most sensible methane exporters. Methane fuel intake and is the second largest producer on the continent. The organization calls Egypt’s overall climate goals and policies “woefully inadequate. “
For COP27 participants, the summit provides a transparent opportunity to read about the host government’s rhetoric and climate reality. But there is also a legal responsibility to urge Sisi to loosen his grip on the country’s freedoms of assembly, organization and expression during COP27 and beyond.
The debate among diplomats at COP27 over whether ambitious climate policies or human rights coverage come first presents a false dichotomy. Strong climate policies require strong commitment from civil society. Climate action wants more critical voices, not fewer.
Tirana Hassan is acting director of Human Rights Watch.
Richard Pearshouse is human rights director at Human Rights Watch.
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