COP27
Corporate Courts Versus Developing World
Perez-Rocha, Manuel
http://consortiumnews.com/2022/11/17/cop27-corporate-courts-versus-developing-world/
Date Written: 2022-11-17
Publisher: Consortium News
Year Published: 2022
Resource Type: Article
Cx Number: CX24783
As rich countries move away from dispute-settlement mechanisms that give corporations power to block environmental protections, Manuel Pérez-Rocha says they keep imposing them on developing countries through trade pacts.
Abstract:
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Excerpt:
In advance of the global climate negotiations now taking place in Egypt, several countries announced important actions to curb the power of the fossil fuel industry.
For decades now, a global web of international investment agreements has given corporations excessive powers to block government policies they don’t like.
Through “investor-state dispute settlement” mechanisms, these agreements grant corporations the right to sue governments in unaccountable supranational tribunals, demanding huge payouts in retaliation for actions that might reduce the value of their investments. Corporations are able to file such lawsuits over a wide array of government actions — including actions designed to protect people and the planet.
Poland, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Spain have now announced they will withdraw from one of these anti-democratic agreements: the Energy Charter Treaty, a 1991 pact signed by about 50 countries.
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