How big fossil-fuel-producing countries export emissions abroad

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 US 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.

That has allowed countries like the United States, Norway, Australia and others to say they are making progress toward international climate goals while also producing and exporting fossil fuels at breakneck pace, said Bill Hare, co-founder of Climate Action Tracker, an independent scientific project that tracks government climate action.

"Most of these fossil-fuel-exporting countries can get to look good with their domestic climate action," he said on the sidelines of the COP29 conference in Baku this week. "Their exported emissions are someone else's problem."

US fossil fuel exports – including coal, oil, gas and refined fuels – led to over 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions in other countries in 2022, according to a calculation carried out by Climate Action Tracker and verified by Reuters using data from the International Energy Agency. That is equivalent to about a third of US domestic emissions, the data showed.

A years-long drilling boom has made the US the world's top oil and gas producer, while robust demand has lifted its coal exports for four years running, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Asked how Washington squares its climate ambitions with its fossil fuel production and exports, President Joe Biden's climate adviser, Ali Zaidi, said strong energy output was needed to keep consumer prices low during a transition to cleaner fuels.

"I don't think there is social licence for a decarbonisation playbook that puts upward price pressure for retail consumers in the marketplace," Zaidi told Reuters.

Incoming president Donald Trump, a climate change sceptic, has said he wants to further boost the nation's fossil fuel production.

For other producers, greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel exports sometimes outweigh domestic emissions, Climate Action Tracker said.

That was true for Norway, Australia and Canada in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available for all countries analysed. Reuters obtained exclusive access to the calculations.

Norway's Ministry of Climate and Environment said it is up to other nations to manage their own carbon footprints.

"Each country is responsible for reducing its own emissions," the ministry said in a statement to Reuters.

Officials at the environment and climate ministries of Canada and Australia did not comment.

Addressing the summit in Azerbaijan, host President Ilham Aliyev accused some Western politicians of double standards for lecturing his government about its oil and gas use, saying, "They better look at themselves."

CEMENT AND BRICKMAKERS

Most US gas exports now go to European countries seeking to reduce dependence on Russia, while China has become one of the top buyers of US crude and coal, according to the EIA figures. America's biggest growth market for coal, however, is North Africa.

US coal mines exported around 52.5 million short tons globally in the first half of 2024, up nearly 7% from the same period a year ago, the data showed.

Much of the increase was driven by cement and brickmakers in Egypt and Morocco, which together took in more than 5 million short tons over the period, the EIA said in a recent report.

"These customers value the high heat content of US thermal coal, which makes their manufacturing operations more efficient," the report said.