"Coal use expands, regulation enforcement still weak", 14 December 2015

In an interview with Daily News Egypt in November, Environment Minister Khaled Fahmy denied that the health of citizens was endangered by pollution from factories burning coal to produce power. “It is not logical to shut down cement plants when the country is going through a process of industrial development,” he said. New amendments were made to the environment law code of conduct in April, under Ibrahim Mehleb’s cabinet, to officially integrate coal into the energy mix by the end of 2015. The move reversed the previous decision to ban the importation of coal due to its potential health impact...Ahmed Hosny, lawyer at Habi Centre for Environmental Rights (HCER), said: “Environment-related cases are usually settled in the prosecution with a criminal order and a fine without being escalated to courts.” Violators find it easy to commit such wrongs, according to Hosny, as penalties are limited to fines of affordable amounts, often less than the minimum stipulated by law. In June 2014, a criminal order was issued against Lafarge Cement, fining them EGP 10,000 for a violation that warranted a fine of at least EGP 20,000 by law. It came after six months of investigations following a report filed by the Minister of Environment in January 2014...