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ECT

We need to rethink investment treaties to ensure a rapid and just energy transition
22-Apr-2021 IIED
It’s time to reconsider investor-state dispute settlement; inaction risks rising costs of shifting from fossil fuels to green alternatives.
Stop the Energy Charter Treaty
21-Apr-2021 Friends of the Earth Europe
This obscure treaty from the 1990s grants sweeping rights and protections to big energy investors – mainly fossil fuel companies.
Energy Charter Treaty strikes again as Uniper sues Netherlands over coal phase-out
19-Apr-2021 Euractiv
German energy company Uniper has confirmed its intention to sue the Dutch government over the country’s planned coal phase-out.
Oil companies don’t deserve reparations for fossil fuel bans. They’ll still want them
19-Apr-2021 The Guardian
Energy conglomerates have recourse to special courts and legal regimes that they helped design – and they won’t go down without a fight.
Ascent Resources starts arbitration process against Slovenia, claims over €100mn damages
24-Mar-2021 Total Slovenia News
The British company pursues its investment treaty claim under the UK-Slovenia bilateral investment treaty and the Energy Charter Treaty.
“Super-protections” for corporations
17-Mar-2021 SOMO
How investment treaties and investor-to-state dispute settlement grant foreign investors greater rights than Dutch and EU law.
Shell’s legal weapon to threaten a just energy future
11-Mar-2021 Future Beyond Shell
To realise a future beyond fossil fuels, it is imperative to look at how to disentangle the legal shackles that enable companies to frustrate climate policy and shift the burden of their stranded assets onto the shoulders of taxpayers through arbitration claims.
Germany to pay nuclear operators 2.6 billion euros for plant closures
6-Mar-2021 Reuters
Vattenfall will get 1.606 billion euros and agreed to end pursuing a separate damages claim in the World Bank’s ICSID arbitration tribunal.
Mustaqeem de Gama, South African Mission in Geneva: “It is a bad idea for any African country to consider signing the Energy Charter Treaty”
23-Feb-2021 Investigate Europe
Joining the Energy Charter Treaty is not in the public interest, according to South Africa’s government. It has also cancelled other agreements that allowed foreign investors to sue their state. This has not stopped investors from coming, says Mustaqeem de Gama.
Take action to end the climate-killing Energy Charter Treaty
23-Feb-2021 CEO
Sign the petition to pull out of the Energy Charter Treaty and stop its expansion to other countries!
How Energy Treaty ’shadow’ courts prolong EU’s fossil age
23-Feb-2021 EU Observer
The treaty enables companies to claim billions in compensation from states in front of international arbitration tribunals, if they feel unfairly treated by the states’ energy or climate policies.
Join the movement and sign the petition to #EndFossilProtection
17-Feb-2021 bilaterals.org
A petition to ensure the Energy Charter Treaty will no longer be used against EU climate and energy policies is now available for supporters on the European Parliament website.
EU readies reforms to energy treaty as climate criticisms mount
16-Feb-2021 Reuters
Some governments have said the bloc should consider quitting the agreement because the treaty could threaten climate goals.
France puts EU withdrawal from Energy Charter Treaty on the table
4-Feb-2021 Euractiv
The European Union and its member states should draw the consequences of the current stalemate in multilateral talks aimed at reforming the Energy Charter Treaty and consider a coordinated withdrawal, Paris has said
German energy giant RWE uses the Energy Charter Treaty to attack Dutch climate action
4-Feb-2021 CAN Europe
RWE has filed an arbitration claim against the Netherlands, seeking compensation for the Dutch decision to phase-out electricity production from coal by 2030.
Energy Charter Treaty reform reaches milestone, with little progress to show
16-Dec-2020 Euractiv
A two-day conference of the 54 parties to the Energy Charter Treaty will attempt to move forward in reforming the little-known charter, decried by environmentalists for protecting fossil fuel investments and blocking international efforts to curb global warming.
Busting myths around the Energy Charter Treaty
15-Dec-2020 TNI
Amidst growing concerns that the ECT undermines urgent climate action, its corporate profiteers, the ECT Secretariat, and others are spewing propaganda, promoting falsehoods about how the treaty attracts clean investment.
Open letter from climate leaders and scientists to signatories of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT)
8-Dec-2020 End Fossil Protection
Withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty because it impedes the transition to clean energy.
Russia suffers new blow in $50 billion Yukos case
7-Dec-2020 The Moscow Times
The Netherlands’ top court ruled that shareholders in dismantled oil giant Yukos can continue to pursue Russia for $50 billion in compensation pending a final judgement in a long legal saga.
EU Commission could pull out of controversial energy treaty
4-Dec-2020 EU Observer
The European Commission has confirmed for the first time that Brussels could withdraw from the controversial Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), which critics say shields the fossil-fuel industry.