This obscure energy treaty is the greatest threat to the planet you’ve never heard of
The Energy Charter Treaty allows fossil fuel companies to sue governments for taking action on climate change. It must be stopped before it’s too late. On 4 February the German energy giant RWE announced it was suing the government of the Netherlands. The crime? Proposing to phase out coal from the country’s electricity mix. The company, which is Europe’s biggest emitter of carbon, is demanding €1.4bn in ‘compensation’ from the country for loss of potential earnings, because the Dutch government has banned the burning of coal for electricity from 2030.
If this sounds unreasonable, then you might be surprised to learn that this kind of legal action is perfectly normal – and likely to become far more commonplace in the coming years. RWE is suing under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), a little-known international agreement signed without much public debate in 1994. The treaty binds more than 50 countries, and allows foreign investors in the energy sector to sue governments for decisions that might negatively impact their profits – including climate policies. Governments can be forced to pay huge sums in compensation if they lose an ECT case….
John Sentamu - It’s time to
act against the oil companies causing death and destruction
Matt Sheehan - Silent documentary on China's
unspooling environmental disasters
Joseph Stiglitz on artificial intelligence: We're
going towards a more divided society
Restoring
forests could capture two-thirds of the carbon humans have added to the
atmosphere
From Siberia to Australia:
the age of fire is the bleakest warning yet
The Amazon is burning. The
climate is changing. And we're doing nothing to stop it
David Cox - The planet's prodigious poo problem
Owen Jones: Why don’t we
treat the climate crisis with the same urgency as coronavirus?
Abolish War - Russell-Einstein Manifesto of 1955
Chomsky: Internationalism or Extinction
Capitalism and war: The
money behind Sudan's most powerful militia
World military
expenditure grows to $1.8 trillion in 2018
Start-up devours pollution
with new plastic recycling method
Call to Earth and the extraordinary people working for
a more sustainable future
Anna Fletcher: Indian student creates a brick made
from recycled plastic
Scientists Accidentally
Create A Plastic-Eating Enzyme
Could the Free World start
cleaning up its act - from the bottom up?
Wiped out: America's love of
luxury toilet paper is destroying Canadian forests
NORMAN MILLER: The forgotten foods that could excite
our tastebuds
Dan Collyns - Peru’s potato museum could stave off world food crisis
