Ministers of Petroleum, Electricity and Environmental Affairs met early Wednesday and decided to form a committee to follow up on the regulatory updates for coal usage in Egypt. The committee will be responsible for setting up each ministry's duties. Interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb will be responsible for the formulation of the committee. The ministers met to discuss each ministry's commitment needed to follow through with the listing of coal as an energy source and necessary regulations, the Ministry of Environmental Affairs said in an official statement. The ministers reviewed the usage standards that will be imported from Europe and technical methods that will be applied to help reduce emissions from cement industries, the official ministerial statement noted. Among the regulations discussed was the need for those production facilities that will rely on coal as an energy source to maximise their use of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and agricultural wastes. The ministers agreed on conducting studies on the safety of transporting coal through Egyptian ports. Representatives from the ministries of Health, Tourism, Finance and Interior attended the meeting. After months of ongoing discussions, the cabinet approved the use of coal as an energy source earlier this month. This decision was scrutinised by a number of experts and researchers.
