{"id":7063,"date":"2021-05-31T09:29:30","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T09:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greens-efa.eu\/dossier\/?p=7063"},"modified":"2021-06-01T12:51:42","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T12:51:42","slug":"how-the-energy-charter-treaty-is-blocking-the-energy-transition-and-causing-climate-injustice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greens-efa.eu\/dossier\/how-the-energy-charter-treaty-is-blocking-the-energy-transition-and-causing-climate-injustice\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Energy Charter Treaty is blocking the energy transition and causing climate injustice"},"content":{"rendered":"
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01.06.2021<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Read Issue 1: All About the Climate Law <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>
Read Issue 2: Responding to a Crisis: Climate and Corona <\/em>here.<\/em><\/a>
Read Issue 3: Will COVID-19 Destroy or Empower the European Green Deal here<\/a><\/em>
Read Issue 4: Financing the Green Deal here<\/a><\/em>
Read Issue 5: The EU Recovery Plan here<\/a><\/em>
Read Issue 6: The Mercosur Trade Agreement: A Lose-Lose Deal here<\/a><\/em>
Read Issue 7: Farm to Fork Strategy here<\/a><\/em>
Read Issue 8: The European Climate Targets by 2030 here<\/a><\/em>
Read Issue 9: How Trees Can Stop Climate Change here<\/a><\/em>
Read Issue 10: Getting out of the red: The Greenhouse Gas Budget here<\/a><\/em>
Read Issue 11: The case for a European Climate Change Council <\/em>here<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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\u201cClimate justice!\u201d<\/em> is the anthem of the youth-led climate\nmovement. It reminds us that we\u2019re not just fighting climate change for the\nplanet. Climate justice is about people. Our definition of justice is broad,\ninclusive and intersectional. We acknowledge all kinds of oppression,\nchallenges and people\u2019s experiences. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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\"Climate
Climate Justice FFF \/ CC0 markus-spiske<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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In an\nattempt to obtain justice, activists from all over the world are appealing to\nnational and supranationational courts to recognise that their right to life\nand liberty is threatened because of the climate crisis. They are winning in an\nincreasing number of cases, and also civil <\/a>disobedience<\/a> actions have been justified<\/a> as they\u2019re\ngrounded on moral reasons. Given this, it is tempting to believe that the\njudicial system is our ally in the struggle to bring justice and reparation, to\nhalt the annihilation of biodiversity and minimise the risk of social collapse\ndue to the climate crisis. However, while citizens are trying to use the\njudicial system to bring social change, more often than not it is leveraged by\nthose who want to stop it: namely, the fossil fuel companies.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Our\njudicial system is biased and flawed. It is regulated by human-made laws and\noften constrained within the schemes of the current system. An example of this\nis the so-called Energy Charter Treaty<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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\"Fossil
Fossil fuel pollution \/ CC0 chris-leboutillier<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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About the little-known and massively problematic Energy Charter Treaty.<\/h4>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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Today we\nuse about 100 million barrels of oil<\/em>,\nevery single day. While there are no rules to keep that oil in the ground, the\ninternational legal system contains some loopholes that protect fossil fuel companies\nfrom having to implement the energy transition. This possibility is granted by\nthe Energy Charter Treaty.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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The Energy\nCharter Treaty was adopted in the 1990s and is an international agreement\napplied in more than 50 countries – mostly Western – with rights for foreign\ninvestors in the energy sector at its core. Its original aim was to protect\ninvestments in states with uncertain legal situations, namely in the former\nSoviet Union region. Fast forward to the present day and this reasoning is totally\noutdated. Now the treaty represents a major threat to carbon neutrality. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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In essence,\nit gives foreign investors in the energy sector the power to sue states over\ngovernment actions that \u2018damage\u2019 or \u2018threaten\u2019 their investments. In many\ncases, it ends up protecting fossil fuel profits – the same ones that are\ndriving us to the brink of mass extinction and climate breakdown.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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In the\nfirst ten years of the agreement, very few cases were opened. This number has\nincreased by more than 400 percent in the last decade. Moreover, 74\npercent are lawsuits brought by EU investors<\/a> against EU states. The\ntotal number of cases is impressive: more than any other investment treaty ever\nsigned. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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\"Gas
Gas pump \/ CC0 jonathan-kemper<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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Why is the Energy Charter Treaty bad for climate change?<\/h4>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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In legal\njargon, they call it an investor-state\ndispute settlement<\/em> through private\narbitration tribunals.<\/em> What it means is that foreign investor corporations\nuse a secretive external court system, often stacked in their favour, to stop,\nslow-down or massively increase the social cost of the energy transition.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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The very\nexistence of the Energy Charter Treaty gives corporations enormous power to\nlobby governments, threatening them with legal action. If a government decides\nto stop a new oil or gas pipeline, withdraw drilling permits or exit coal,\ncompanies can make a claim for \u2018debts\u2019 that the government supposedly owes them\nfor the loss of future profits they would have made with business as usual. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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The fossil\nfuel assets protected by the treaty include oil and gas fields, gas pipelines,\nfast power plants, coal power plants and LNG terminals. This, of course, is\nbasically a kind hand-out to fossil fuel companies. The Energy Charter Treaty\nalso makes governments reluctant to raise their climate target ambitions\nbecause they are afraid of being sued by energy companies for \u2018the (financial)\ndamages\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Even when\ngovernments dare to champion green policies, the fossil fuel companies still\nend up pocketing a lot of money that should instead be used to fund the just transition<\/em>, making sure that the\nswitch to renewable energy doesn\u2019t unfairly impact people\u2019s lives and\nlivelihoods. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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For a long\ntime, fossil fuel companies have been aware of climate change<\/a>\nand of the devastating consequences of their activities. They knew that we\nneeded to move away from a fossil system but kept making plans and investments\nto take more of our precious resources out of the ground. In doing so, they\ncreated a bubble of <\/a>stranded assets<\/em><\/a>:\nreserves of fossil fuels counted in the budget as future revenues but that –\ngiven the desperate need to decarbonize – risks not being recoverable, and\ntherefore becoming very expensive.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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The youth\ntaking the streets to protest are pointing out that this is immature and\nirresponsible behaviour. Somebody has to pay the price for the mess that has\nbeen created. The question is… who should pay it? Is there any possibility of\njustice if the Energy Charter Treaty is forcing citizens to pay billions in\ntaxes to fossil fuel companies?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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\"Child
Child holding a balloon during a climate march\/ CC0 Mika Baumeister<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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Should the Energy Charter Treaty be fixed\u2026. or scrapped?<\/h4>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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There are\nnegotiations on the modernisation of the Energy Charter Treaty happening right\nnow, but it\u2019s very unlikely to lead to any meaningful changes. Amending the\ntreaty requires unanimity from all the member countries, but there is no\nagreement that the treaty needs to be reformed at all, let alone the need to\nphase-out fossil fuel protection. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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The former\nEU Commissioner for Climate Change – Connie Hedegaard – has said that \u2018the\nEnergy Charter Treaty is an obstacle to achieving the EU\u2019s climate targets. We\nmust withdraw from it now.\u2019  In July\n2019, the Commission received a mandate from the Council to start negotiations\nto its \u201cmodernisation\u201d. So far, four negotiation rounds have taken place<\/a>, with\nthe next one planned for June 2021. While the EU is the main driver of this\nprocess, even its own proposal contains huge loopholes, as it does not want to\nget rid of the protection for fossil fuels before modernisation, and it intends\nto keep protecting gas power plants and pipelines.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Even with\nthe most ambitious discussions on the Energy Charter Treaty being implemented,\nit will never<\/em> become a tool that\nwould be helpful in the fight against climate change. It\u2019s completely incompatible with the European Green Deal<\/a>\nand with the EU\u2019s climate targets.  <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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And, if you\nstill need convincing, the treaty is also inherently anti-democratic. It gives\nprivate companies the power to use tribunal cases shrouded in secrecy, without\ntransparency or public accountability. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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\"Wind
Wind turbines in field at sunset \/ CC0 Karsten Wurth<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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Help us fight for climate justice – let\u2019s get out of the Energy Charter Treaty!<\/h4>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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If we want\nto stop climate change and achieve climate justice, the EU has to withdraw from\nthe Energy Charter Treaty. This is not as easy as it sounds. The treaty\nincludes a provision for a 20-year zombie\nclause, <\/em>known romantically as the\nsunset clause,<\/em> that allows companies to continue suing governments even\nafter they have left the treaty. This is already happening in Italy, which left the treaty in 2015 and is nonetheless facing a\nlegal procedure<\/a> for having stopped an oil drilling concession after\ncivil society mobilized against it. Italian citizens now risk losing up to\nUS$350 million in taxes to a private company.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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The odds\nare stacked against us, but there is still lots we can do. Civil society,\nnon-governmental organisations (NGOs) and climate movements are calling out for the EU to withdraw<\/a> from\nthe Energy Charter Treaty. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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A petition has been launched<\/a> demanding that EU Member States withdraw from the treaty, and to stop its expansion to other countries.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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It is not\nright that corporations can get richer with taxpayers\u2019 money by halting the\nEU’s efforts to stop the climate crisis. Withdrawal is the only acceptable\noption.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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\ud83d\udc49 Write to your Energy Minister to say No to the Energy Charter Treaty!<\/a> \ud83d\udc48<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\t

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