[CTC] The Guardian: Global trade deal threatens Paris climate goals, leaked documents show

[Fred Heutte]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/20/global-trade-deal-threatens-paris-
climate-goals-leaked-documents-show

Global trade deal threatens Paris climate goals, leaked documents show

Controversial Trade in Services Agreement (Tisa) could make it harder for
governments to favour clean energy over fossil fuels as part of efforts to
keep temperature rises to 1.5C

Arthur Neslen

Tuesday 20 September 2016 04.00 EDT

A far-reaching global trade deal being negotiated in secret could threaten
the goals of the Paris climate deal by making it harder for governments to
favour clean energy over fossil fuels, a leak of the latest negotiating
text shows.

The controversial Trade in Services Agreement (Tisa) aims to liberalise
trade between the EU and 22 countries across the global services sector,
which employs tens of millions in Europe alone.

But a new EU text seen by the Guardian would oblige signatories to work
towards “energy neutrality” between renewable energy and fossil fuel power,
although amendments proposed by the EU would exempt nuclear power from this
rule.

The document, marked “limited distribution – for Tisa participants only”,
would also force member states to legislate against “anti-competitive
conduct” and “market distortions” in energy-related services. This is
viewed by campaigners as code for state support for clean power sectors,
such as wind and solar.

A right to regulate is explicitly mentioned in the paper, but governments
would first have to prove the necessity for regulations that legally
constrain multinationals.

The same clause was used in the World Trade Organisation’s Gatt and Gats
treaties which entered into force in 1995, and led to 44 complaints by
multinationals via their governments. Of these, 43 were upheld.

Susan Cohen Jehoram, a spokeswoman for Greenpeace, told the Guardian: “We
fear the same thing will happen with Tisa but on a much larger scale, when
legislation is proposed to keep temperature rises to 1.5C [above pre-
industrial levels, as agreed at the Paris climate summit].

“If we want to reach that target, governments will need a toolbox of
measures that can give incentives to cleaner energy. Tisa, like the
proposed TTIP and Ceta trade agreements, would increase the power of
multinationals to prevent governments taking desperately needed measures to
decrease CO2 levels.”

The Paris climate agreement called for “making finance flows consistent
with a pathway to low greenhouse gas emissions” but the deregulatory thrust
of the negotiating text, which was obtained by Greenpeace Netherlands,
seems to run counter to this.

Its energy annex says that the trade rules will apply to all legislative
measures covering power generation services, “whether the energy source is
renewable or non-renewable”.

It also contains a “standstill” clause freezing in perpetuity the high
watermark of liberalisation in certain sectors, and a “ratchet” clause to
stop countries reintroducing trade barriers that had been previously
removed. Both mechanisms have been proposed by Australia.

Under their tenets, any government elected on a ticket of reversing the
liberalisation of services contained in the treaty would thus be unable to
do so, campaigners claim.

The UK’s shadow international trade and energy spokesman, Barry Gardiner,
Labour MP, told the Guardian: “Whilst every effort should be made to
promote business and trade, this must not be at the expense of the
protection and enhancement of workers’ rights, environmental safeguards and
the wider interests of the British people.”

While Brexit could prevent the UK from being bound by the planned trade
treaty, any agreement allowing access to the EU’s single market would
probably oblige it to follow the new rules.

Opposition to the proposed text from Theresa May’s government is thought
unlikely. David Davis, the minister for Brexit, recently described the
similar Ceta trade agreement with Canada as his preferred model for a trade
arrangement with the EU.

Gardiner said: “The British people have voted to come out of the European
Union to preserve the principle of parliamentary sovereignty, it cannot be
right then that secret trade deals are currently being conducted entirely
outside the scrutiny of national parliaments and law-makers.”

“The structure of such deals are like a lobster pot – once you have gone
through and given power to the commercial interest it is no longer possible
to recapture democratic control. What we do hear, through leaks and
rumours, are terms which clearly prevent the ongoing capacity of
governments to govern in the public interest.”

Before coming into effect though, any finalised Tisa text will most likely
need to be approved by all EU member states – which currently includes the
UK – and will also require approval from the European parliament.

Earlier this year, MEPs voted to back the deal, on the proviso that public
services were excluded and that the deal legally secured the right to
regulate at European, national and local authority level.

Parliament’s rapporteur, the former EU justice commisioner, Viviane Reding,
has previously said that the assembly will “never consent” to any trade
pact that diminished the EU’s right to regulate on climate, health and
social laws.

Reding refused to comment on the leak but informed sources said that
neither she nor the European parliament would consent to provisions which
prevented public authorities from supporting renewables.

Reding, a conservative politician from Luxembourg, has also called on the
Luxembourg government to demand an end to negotiations on the EU-US free
trade deal known as TTIP, over the use of controversial secret investor
courts, and threats to the environment and food safety.

Unlike TTIP, Tisa deals with the less tangible trade services sector that
nonetheless constitutes more than half of the global economy, and could
impact on an estimated 1.8 billion people.

As well as energy, any Tisa deal will apply to financial services, e-
commerce, information and communications technology services, international
maritime transport services, computer related services, postal and courier
services, and government procurement of services.

A report by the UN conference on trade and development later this week is
expected to say that mega-trade deals such as TTIP and Tisa are becoming
increasingly politicised, and failing to provide a solution to the slowdown
in global growth.