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….

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/this-obscure-energy-treaty-is-the-greatest-threat-to-the-planet-youve-never-heard-of/

Aseem Shrivastava: An Age gone blind // Mallika Bhanot - Char Dham Pariyojana: A High Risk Engineering Exercise

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

Toby Walsh - Noam Chomsky and Stephen Hawking among a thousand intellectuals to sign Open Letter to Stop Killer Robots Before They’re Built

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

Book review: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History // Conservative groups spend up to $1bn a year to fight action on climate change

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

MONEY TO BURN: Over 300 banks and investors back 6 of the world’s most harmful agribusinesses to the tune of $44bn

REBECCA SMITHERS - We Are Flushing Away Our Forests: Researchers warn that toilet paper is becoming unsustainable

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

Keeping up with China: US Navy orders $22 billion worth of submarines // World military expenditure grows to $1.8 trillion in 2018

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


Popular posts from this blog

Third degree torture used on Maruti workers: Rights body

Haruki Murakami: On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning

The Almond Trees by Albert Camus (1940)

Satyagraha - An answer to modern nihilism

Rudyard Kipling: critical essay by George Orwell (1942)

Three Versions of Judas: Jorge Luis Borges

Goodbye Sadiq al-Azm, lone Syrian Marxist against the Assad regime