M
Mike Monett VE3BTI
Guest
Here is a secret treaty that protects fossil fuel companies. How many more
secret treaties are there? It pays to uncover these things. Our future is
at stake.
The Guardian reports:
France has become the latest country to pull out of the controversial
energy charter treaty (ECT), which protects fossil fuel investors from
policy changes that might threaten their profits. The Guardian reports:
Speaking after an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, French president,
Emmanuel Macron, said: \"France has decided to withdraw from the energy
charter treaty.\" Quitting the ECT was \"coherent\" with the Paris climate
deal, he added. Macron\'s statement follows a recent vote by the Polish
parliament to leave the 52-nation treaty and announcements by Spain and the
Netherlands that they too wanted out of the scheme.
The European Commission has proposed a \"modernization\" of the agreement,
which would end the writ of the treaty\'s secret investor-state courts
between EU members. That plan is expected to be discussed at a meeting in
Mongolia next month. A French government official said Paris would not try
to block the modernization blueprint within the EU or at the meeting in
Mongolia. \"But whatever happens, France is leaving,\" the official said.
While France was \"willing to coordinate a withdrawal with others, we
don\'t see that there is a critical mass ready to engage with that in the EU
bloc as a whole,\" the official added.
The French withdrawal will take about a year to be completed, and in that
time, discussion in Paris will likely move on to ways of neutralizing or
reducing the duration of a \"sunset clause\" in the ECT that allows
retrospective lawsuits. Progress on that issue is thought possible by
sources close to ongoing legal negotiations on the issue.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/21/france-becomes-latest-
country-to-leave-controversial-energy-charter-treaty
Energy Charter Treaty
The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is an international agreement that
establishes a multilateral framework for cross-border cooperation in the
energy industry, principally the fossil fuel industry. The treaty covers
all aspects of commercial energy activities including trade, transit,
investments and energy efficiency. The treaty contains dispute resolution
procedures both for States Parties to the Treaty (vis-a-vis other States)
and as between States and the investors of other States, who have
made investments in the territory of the former.[3]
Initially, the Energy Charter process aimed to integrate the energy sectors
of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War into the
broader European and world markets. Its role, however, extends beyond
eastwest cooperation and, through legally binding instruments, free trade
in global energy markets and non-discrimination to stimulate foreign direct
investments and global cross-border trade.
Awards and settlements of the international arbitrations put forward by
breaking the law of the Energy Charter Treaty are sometimes in the hundreds
of millions of dollars. In 2014, the Yukos cases were decided in favour of
the claimants on the basis of the treaty with a record-breaking US$50
billion award, although appeals continue in courts in the Netherlands.
In recent years, the Energy Charter Treaty has been criticized for being a
significant obstacle to enacting national policies to combat climate
change, and that it actively disincentivizes national governments from
compliance with recent international climate treaties such as the Paris
Agreement due to the threat of significant financial loss.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Charter_Treaty
--
MRM
secret treaties are there? It pays to uncover these things. Our future is
at stake.
The Guardian reports:
France has become the latest country to pull out of the controversial
energy charter treaty (ECT), which protects fossil fuel investors from
policy changes that might threaten their profits. The Guardian reports:
Speaking after an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, French president,
Emmanuel Macron, said: \"France has decided to withdraw from the energy
charter treaty.\" Quitting the ECT was \"coherent\" with the Paris climate
deal, he added. Macron\'s statement follows a recent vote by the Polish
parliament to leave the 52-nation treaty and announcements by Spain and the
Netherlands that they too wanted out of the scheme.
The European Commission has proposed a \"modernization\" of the agreement,
which would end the writ of the treaty\'s secret investor-state courts
between EU members. That plan is expected to be discussed at a meeting in
Mongolia next month. A French government official said Paris would not try
to block the modernization blueprint within the EU or at the meeting in
Mongolia. \"But whatever happens, France is leaving,\" the official said.
While France was \"willing to coordinate a withdrawal with others, we
don\'t see that there is a critical mass ready to engage with that in the EU
bloc as a whole,\" the official added.
The French withdrawal will take about a year to be completed, and in that
time, discussion in Paris will likely move on to ways of neutralizing or
reducing the duration of a \"sunset clause\" in the ECT that allows
retrospective lawsuits. Progress on that issue is thought possible by
sources close to ongoing legal negotiations on the issue.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/21/france-becomes-latest-
country-to-leave-controversial-energy-charter-treaty
Energy Charter Treaty
The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is an international agreement that
establishes a multilateral framework for cross-border cooperation in the
energy industry, principally the fossil fuel industry. The treaty covers
all aspects of commercial energy activities including trade, transit,
investments and energy efficiency. The treaty contains dispute resolution
procedures both for States Parties to the Treaty (vis-a-vis other States)
and as between States and the investors of other States, who have
made investments in the territory of the former.[3]
Initially, the Energy Charter process aimed to integrate the energy sectors
of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War into the
broader European and world markets. Its role, however, extends beyond
eastwest cooperation and, through legally binding instruments, free trade
in global energy markets and non-discrimination to stimulate foreign direct
investments and global cross-border trade.
Awards and settlements of the international arbitrations put forward by
breaking the law of the Energy Charter Treaty are sometimes in the hundreds
of millions of dollars. In 2014, the Yukos cases were decided in favour of
the claimants on the basis of the treaty with a record-breaking US$50
billion award, although appeals continue in courts in the Netherlands.
In recent years, the Energy Charter Treaty has been criticized for being a
significant obstacle to enacting national policies to combat climate
change, and that it actively disincentivizes national governments from
compliance with recent international climate treaties such as the Paris
Agreement due to the threat of significant financial loss.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Charter_Treaty
--
MRM