All we want for Christmas is...

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Hi John,

With major European powers all having left the Energy Charter Treaty in time for the holidays, the UK is the grinch amongst the townsfolk. All we want for Christmas is the UK to leave the ECT!

The evidence is piling up, with new studies confirming the absurdity of staying in the ECT. Research just published shows the UK faces a $5.3bn legal threat to climate action if it stays in. (1)

This is because this toxic treaty locks in the risk of being sued by fossil fuel companies. Our current government has made the disastrous decision to green-light the West Cumbria coal mine and Cambo oil field. If a future government saw sense and reversed these, it could be sued under the ECT or similar corporate court treaties.

Yet the new research also shows that if the UK exits the ECT together with European countries in a coordinated way, this would get rid of 99% of the risk from the treaty.

You can help us get the arguments out there by sharing this graphic below on the reasons to #ExitECT.

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Without getting itself in gear, the UK will miss its chance to leave alongside these other countries. Together, a coordinated group can agree not to sue each other on the way out. This neutralises another beastly aspect of the treaty, the ‘sunset’ clause which keeps countries under the threat of lawsuits even years after exiting.

And yet another study has come out disproving the greenwash summoned to prop up the ECT: it confirms decades of research that corporate courts don’t have any impact on promoting investment in renewable energy. (2)

On the contrary, the constant threat of being sued over their policy decisions means that governments are far more hamstrung in developing and testing out strategies for the renewable energy transition - and costly lawsuits also add huge strain on the public budget to do so.

Armed with this evidence heading into the new year, we’ll be ramping up the pressure to move the UK government from merely “monitoring” the ECT situation to admitting that it is untenable.

Thank you for joining us in all the hard work this year on the campaign - we’ve pushed the ECT to the brink of collapse. We look forward to continuing the fight with you in 2023!

In solidarity,
Cleodie Rickard,
Trade campaigner at Global Justice Now.

1. 'Investor-state dispute settlement: obstructing a just energy transition', Taylor & Francis Online, 7 March 2022

2. 'Scaling Renewable Energy Investment: Roadblocks and Drivers', Columbia Center on Sustainable Development

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Fossil fuel companies are using secret tribunals written into trade deals to sue governments over climate action. But a movement is coming together to call on the UK and governments around the world to scrap these ‘corporate courts’.

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