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Une lettre ouverte s’opposant au traité sur la Charte de l’énergie et à la proposition d’y inclure l’énergie de la biomasse

Le traité sur la charte de l’énergie : Y inclure la bioénergie dans son mandat aggraverait davantage ce traité néfaste

Le traité sur la Charte de l’énergie (TCE) permet aux investisseurs dans le secteur énergétique basés dans un Etat membre de poursuivre le gouvernement d’un autre membre actif ou ancien au sujet de presque toutes les décisions ou les politique qui pourraient nuire à leurs profits. Par exemple, les géants de l’énergie RWE et Uniper utilisent le TCE pour réclamer des milliards d’euros en compensation pour des pertes présumées dues à l’élimination progressive du charbon au Pays Bas. Il s’agit d’un traité profondément antidémocratique qui octroie des droits étendus aux investisseurs et qui sape une action climatique significative, la protection de l’environnement et de la santé publique et la justice sociale et environnementale.

Continuer à lire en anglais…

Attempts to reform the ECT are ongoing as the treaty is widely considered an obstacle for countries to pursue Paris-compatible energy policies. This statement is to speak out against an aspect of said reform, which is often overlooked, namely the expansion of the scope of the treaty to biomass, one of several economic activities in the energy sector currently not covered by the ECT which could soon be included in it.

Including biomass within the scope of the ECT, as proposed by the EU, would harm efforts to protect forests, climate and communities by locking in existing harmful bioenergy policies.

ECT members must therefore reject proposals to broaden the scope of the ECT. We fully support existing civil society calls for ECT members to withdraw their membership. While the current members of the ECT are mainly countries in Europe, Central Asia and Japan, several states in Africa, Latin America and Asia are currently in the process of applying for membership in the ECT. We urge countries that are considering joining the Treaty to refrain from doing so. 

Reasons not to expand the ECT’s investment protection to biomass :

  • Most large-scale biomass investments involve burning wood, a large share of which comes directly from forests and tree plantations. As 500 scientists warned earlier this year: “this burning of wood will increase warming for decades or centuries. That is true even when the wood replaces coal, oil or natural gas”. Large-scale energy from forest wood is resulting in forest degradation and loss across Europe and elsewhere, causing habitat and therefore biodiversity loss. And it is often associated with environmental injustice and harm to communities, as well as contributing to air pollution, undermining public health. European Union is therefore looking into reviewing the role of bioenergy within its Renewable Energy Directive, given the mounting evidence that renewable energy subsidies are going towards energy derived from burning whole trees, including from clearcut highly biodiverse forests in countries such as Estonia, the United States or Canada. It may also be necessary to ensure emissions from biomass are adequately priced in through the EU’s CO2 accounting framework or through taxation measures.

Any such measure that could make an investment inoperable or lower its expected profit could in the future allow the investor to claim massive amounts of compensation under the ECT. 

  • EU member states and the UK are ​paying out over €6.5 billion in subsidies​ per year to biomass burning facilities. Changes to these subsidy schemes could also potentially trigger arbitration claims under the ECT.
  • The ECT’s investment protection standards are particularly dangerous and outdated, making it very contradictory to suggest expanding investment protection further. Any reform of the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions as part of the ECT modernisation is very unlikely to happen despite the repeated attempts by the EU to put ISDS reform onto the agenda, which has been opposed by Japan from the beginning.

Signatories:

Acréscimo – Associação de Promoção ao Investimento Florestal Portugal
Aeris Futuro Foundation, Poland
Aitec, France
Amis de l’Afrique Francophone – Bénin (AMAF-BENIN), Benin
ARA, Germany
Australian Rainforest Conservation Society Inc., Australia
Biofuelwatch, UK/USA Biofuelwatch (@biofuelwatch) | Twitter
Bio Vision Africa (BIVA), Uganda
Campaña No a los Tratados de Comercio e Inversión, Spain
Canopée, France
Collectif Stop CETA-Mercosur, France
Comité Schone Lucht, The Netherlands
Corporate Europe Observatory, Europe
Dogwood Alliance, Southeast U.S.
Ecologistas en Acción, Spain
EcoNexus, UK/international
Estonian Continuous Cover Forestry Association, Estonia
Estonian Forest Aid, Estonia
Estonian Green Movement, Estonia
Federation Against Biomass power plants, The Netherlands
Fern, Europe
Forests, Climate and Biomass Energy Working Group, Environmental Paper Network, International
Friends of the Earth Europe, Europe Friends of the Earth Europe
Friends of the Earth Japan, Japan
Friends of the Earth Uganda-NAPE, Uganda
Fundacja Strefa Zieleni, Poland
Friends  of the Earth Scotland, Scotland/UK
Global Forest Coalition, International
Global Justice Now, UK
Healthy Forest Coalition NS, Nova Scotia, Canada
Instytut Spraw Obywatelskich, Poland
Klimabevægelsen, Denmark
Klimataktion, Sweden
Landelijk Netwerk Bossen- en Bomenbescherming, The Netherlands
Leefmilieu, The Netherlands
Mobilisation for the Environment, The Netherlands
Nature Nova Scotia, Canada
NOAH – Friends of the Earth Denmark, Denmark
No Electricity from Forests, NSW, Australia
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), U.S.A
Opolskie Towarzystwo Przyrodnicze, Poland
Partnership for Policy Integrity, USA/EU
Polish Ecological Club Mazovian Branch, Poland
Pro REGENWALD, Germany
Protect the Forest, Sweden
Quercus, Portugal
Rachel Carson Council, U.S.A
Save Estonia’s Forests, Estonia
Stand.earth, Canada and US
Southern Environmental Law Center, U.S.A
Southern Forests Conservation Coalition North Carolina, U.S.A
Stowarzyszenie Ekologiczne EKO-UNIA Poland
Stowarzyszenie Pracownia na rzecz Wszystkich Istot, Poland
Urgewald, Germany
Wild Europe, Europe
Wspólna Ziemia, Poland
ZERO – Associação Sistema Terrestre Sustentável, Portugal
Zielone Wiadomości, Poland

7 juil., 2021
Posted in Petitions and statements, Forêts et Changement Climatique