Energy Charter Treaty versus Climate Urgency

We’ll be talking with Pia Eberhardt , campaginer and expert on international trade from CEO, who explains the ins and outs of this strange creature and why she is campaigning to force the EU to withdraw from the ECT. In only one week almost a quarter of a million EU citizens signed a petition to ask for this, which you can still sign here.

The scientists of the IPCC told us we have ten years to curb  greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore the European Union has declared climate policy the alpha and omega via it’s so called Green Deal. Also the new US administration and many other governments around the world claim to take the climate urgency very serious. 

Now, taking climate change serious basically means that to tackle this crisis we need to , as of today, start keeping fossil fuels in the ground as much as possible. Taking it serious means decentralising energy production and using renewables and energy saving. Taking it serious means that governments need to design policies that tackle climate change, not promote it.

So knowing this: why is there still a global treaty designed by Europe that basically does the opposite: a treaty that punishes or threatens those governments, also European ones,  that want to phase out fossil fuels and switch to renewable energy? Via this ECT governments that phase out coal, end gas production, or stop oil pipelines can be sued by corporations in private courts and be held liable for billions in damages.

Early March will be the start of politicial negotiations on reforming the ECT; For Pia and other activists it is clear that the ECT is beyond repair and that EU governments and the European Commission should pull out of this climate killing treaty and stop its expansion to even more countries. Pia will be explaing the origins of the Energy Charter Treaty, how it undermines the clean energy transition and how it protects hundreds of billions of investments in Fossil infrastructure. Can countries get out of the ECT and what about a so called Zombie clause?

Both CEO and Counter Balance raise awareness on the importance of good governance in the European Union, by researching issues like lobbying of large and powerful industries, corporate capture of decision making, corruption, fraud, human rights violations in areas like agro-business, biotech & chemical companies, the financial sector & public investment banks, trade, energy&climate, scientific research and much more…

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