In France, the High Council for the Climate estimated in an opinion that France and the European Union should get out of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), because this 30-year-old treaty is incompatible with “the decarbonization timetables” provided for in the Paris Agreement.
In June, the EU obtained a reform of the little-known Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), which is too protective of fossil fuels, but the compromise is considered insufficient by NGOs, which are asking the Europeans to withdraw from it.
In an opinion issued Wednesday evening, the High Council for Climate (HCC) agreed with them: “None of the possible scenarios at the end of the fifteenth round of negotiations (…) will allow the signatory parties to commit to a decarbonization trajectory for their respective energy sectors by 2030 that is commensurate with the ambition of the Paris Agreement,” says this independent French advisory body.
The Energy Charter Treaty was signed in 1994, at the end of the Cold War, to provide guarantees to investors in the countries of Eastern Europe and the former USSR. Bringing together the EU and 52 countries, it allows companies to claim, before a private arbitration tribunal, compensation from a State whose decisions affect the profitability of their investments, even when the policies are pro-climate.
A typical case: after the adoption of a Dutch law banning coal by 2030, the German energy company RWE is claiming 1.4 billion euros from The Hague to compensate for its losses on a thermal power plant.
Netherlands, Spain, Poland… and France?
In its opinion, the HCC pinpointed the “multiplication of disputes”, which leads to a “loss of sovereignty” and risks “limiting the ambition of States” in “the implementation of their energy and climate policies”.
These are pitfalls that the project to modernize the text “does not eliminate on its own”, the Council asserts, recommending instead “a coordinated withdrawal from the ECT by France and the EU, coupled with a neutralization of its ‘survival clause'”, which would still protect the fossil fuel installations covered by the treaty for 20 years.
This option is “the least risky for meeting national, European and international climate commitments”, according to the HCC. It could be “implemented without delay” thanks to the European Commission’s proposal at the beginning of October for an additional agreement between the Member States confirming “the non-application of the ECT within the Community”.
“This opinion is of capital importance, it falls at the right time because it is now that the continuation for the TCE is decided”, rejoiced with the AFP Yamina Saheb, expert of the Giec, “it is indeed the least expensive option and the least risked for us, that goes in the direction of the history”.
While the Netherlands has already announced on Wednesday that it would leave the treaty, as did Spain and Poland previously, the expert regrets that “we are still waiting for the answer from Paris”.
“Bercy should seize the opportunity” of the opinion of the HCC “to announce the withdrawal of France”, insists Ms. Saheb.
And thus “accelerate that of all the countries of the Union”, because according to her, “a dozen small countries are only waiting for the announcement of France to start the process in their country”. Russia has already withdrawn from the treaty in 2009, followed by Italy in 2015.
