Climate: Emmanuel Macron announces France’s withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty – 20 Minutes

Not compatible with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. For this main reason, France will withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty (TCE), Emmanuel Macron announced this Friday, after a European Council summit in Brussels, reports France info. “France has decided to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty, which was an important point requested by many,” declared the Head of State on the sidelines of a European summit in Brussels. Energy Charter (ECT) is an international trade and investment agreement aimed at promoting cooperation in the energy sector. It was signed by France in 1994 then ratified in 1999. This treaty is supposed to apply another twenty years after the withdrawal of a signatory country. Deemed incompatible with the Paris agreement The EU obtained in June that it be reformed the little-known TCE, too protective of fossil fuels. But the compromise is considered insufficient by the NGOs, who are asking the Europeans to withdraw. In an opinion issued on Wednesday evening, the High Council for the 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 trajectory of decarbonization of their respective energy sectors by 2030 and at the height of the ambition of the Paris Agreement”, affirmed this independent French advisory body.Signed at the end of the Cold War, the TCE aims to offer 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 it comes to pro- climate. Emblematic 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 station. The Netherlands already announced on Wednesday that they would leave the treaty, as did Spain and Poland previously. Russia already withdrew from the treaty in 2009, followed by Italy in 2015.