"The enabling atmosphere for coal in Egypt", 25 Jun 2014

Since the Cabinet’s decision to allow the use of coal under current regulations, there has not been much clarity in the public sphere as to how coal will be made a reality in Egypt and the timescale for it. Perhaps driven by the legal ambiguity his announcement has created, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb has essentially allowed the use of coal without the promised EU-style regulations required in the original Cabinet announcement allowing coal, and yet “under the current regulations” coal is still illegal to import and the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) cannot grant licenses for its use until the law is amended. In a roundup of old and recent announcements, the following factors indicate that a new era of energy provision in Egypt is more than just vague political announcements, but a web of international and business interests coalescing around one mission: to bring coal to Egypt as soon as possible.