A company that bet on a coal plant, in the EU, in the 2010s, is now upset it has to close by 2030 https://twitter.com/ClimateHome/status/1263439016390778881

Perhaps reckoning they wouldn't get much sympathy in courts, Uniper is seeking compensation under the Energy Charter Treaty, a 90s-era deal to encourage investment between western and former Soviet states

The treaty is vague, it's old, it definitely wasn't written with climate protection in mind

Disputes go through a private arbitration process, heard by private lawyers, many of whom also have energy industry interests

Governments have paid out $51bn to energy companies under the ECT, that we know of - there's no obligation to disclose these cases @corporateeurope

Campaigners are worried fossil fuel companies will increasingly use the threat of litigation under the ECT to water down climate ambition
@BJVerbeek @KaarinaKolle @PauldeClerck3 @ClientEarth

The ECT is up for renegotiation and the European Commission has proposed to reinforce governments' right to set climate policy

That's likely to face resistance from oil-exporting member states. Even if it is adopted, it doesn't stop fossil interests from suing governments

It was notable, watching Uniper's AGM, that the majority of shareholder questions concerned climate change. They're also under fire for opening Datteln 4, a coal plant in Germany set to run until 2038

In a quirk of the story, Uniper is effectively owned by the Finnish government

The Finnish government has a majority stake in Fortum, which bought a majority of Uniper last year and replaced the top execs

This is the Finnish government that joined the international Powering Past Coal Alliance and recently set guidance for state-owned companies saying they should align with the 1.5C target in the Paris Agreement

But a Finnish official told me Fortum and Uniper are independent companies, not their problem

This is really informative on the Energy Charter Treaty, I wish I'd come across it before I wrote the article! By @ysaheb HT @rkyte365 https://www.openexp.eu/sites/default/files/publication/files/2020-02-12_modernisation_of_the_energy_charter_treaty-presentation-final.pdf

Estimates the cost to the EU of continuing with the ECT > investment needed for the Green New Deal

It also shows the ECT has failed to deliver on its original, non-climate related objectives. It's a treaty

I write this thread to encourage you to look past the somewhat dry headline and read the story. FIN https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/05/21/uniper-uses-investment-treaty-fight-netherlands-coal-phaseout/