<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/11/leaked-ttip-energy-proposal-could-sabotage-eu-climate-policy" class="">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/11/leaked-ttip-energy-proposal-could-sabotage-eu-climate-policy</a><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class="content__header tonal__header" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;"><div class="gs-container" style="position: relative; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 71.25rem; padding-left: 1.25rem; padding-right: 1.25rem; box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="u-cf content__main-column" style="max-width: 38.75rem; margin: auto 20rem auto 10rem; position: relative;"><h1 class="js-score content__headline" itemprop="headline" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 2.25rem; line-height: 2.5rem; font-family: 'Guardian Egyptian Web', 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 0.375rem; padding-bottom: 2.25rem;">Leaked TTIP energy proposal could 'sabotage' EU climate policy</h1></div></div></div><div class="tonal__standfirst u-cf" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;"><div class="gs-container" style="position: relative; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 71.25rem; padding-left: 1.25rem; padding-right: 1.25rem; box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="content__main-column" style="max-width: 38.75rem; margin: auto 20rem auto 10rem; position: relative;"><div class=" content__standfirst" data-link-name="standfirst" data-component="standfirst" style="font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.375rem; font-family: 'Guardian Egyptian Web', 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif; margin-bottom: 0.375rem; color: rgb(118, 118, 118);"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5rem;" class="">EU proposal on a free trade deal with the US could curb energy saving measures and a planned switch to clean energy, say MEPs</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">The latest draft version of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/ttip" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" data-component="auto-linked-tag" class="u-underline" style="color: rgb(0, 86, 137); cursor: pointer; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); -webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; text-decoration: none !important;">TTIP</a> agreement could sabotage European efforts to save energy and switch to clean power, according to MEPs.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">A 14th round of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/01/leaked-ttip-documents-cast-doubt-on-eu-us-trade-deal" data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline" style="color: rgb(0, 86, 137); cursor: pointer; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); -webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; text-decoration: none !important;">the troubled negotiations</a> on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade deal between the EU and US is due to begin on Monday in Brussels.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">A leak obtained by the Guardian shows that the EU will propose a rollback of mandatory energy savings measures, and major obstacles to any future pricing schemes designed to encourage the uptake of renewable energies.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">Environmental protections against fossil fuel extraction, logging and mining in the developing world would also come under pressure from articles in the proposed energy chapter.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">Paul de Clerck, a spokesman for Friends of the Earth <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/europe-news" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" data-component="auto-linked-tag" class="u-underline" style="color: rgb(0, 86, 137); cursor: pointer; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); -webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; text-decoration: none !important;">Europe</a>, said the leaked document: “is in complete contradiction with Europe’s commitments to tackle climate change. It will flood the EU market with inefficient appliances, and consumers and the climate will foot the bill. The proposal will also discourage measures to promote renewable electricity production from wind and solar.”</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class=""><a href="http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/january/tradoc_153015.2%20Energy%20and%20raw%20materials.pdf" data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline" style="color: rgb(0, 86, 137); cursor: pointer; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); -webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; text-decoration: none !important;">The European commission says</a> that the free trade deal is intended to: “promote renewable energy and energy efficiency – areas that are crucial in terms of sustainability”.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">The bloc <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/23/ttip-eu-negotiators-appear-to-break-environmental-pledge-in-leaked-draft" data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline" style="color: rgb(0, 86, 137); cursor: pointer; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); -webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; text-decoration: none !important;">has also promised</a> that any agreement would support its climate targets. In the period to 2020, these are binding for clean power and partly binding for energy efficiency, in the home appliance and building standards sectors.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">But the draft chapter obliges the two trade blocs to: “foster industry self-regulation of energy efficiency requirements for goods where such self-regulation is likely to deliver the policy objectives faster or in a less costly manner than mandatory requirements”.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">Campaigners fear that this could tip the balance in future policy debates and setback efforts to tackle climate change.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">Jack Hunter, a spokesman for the European Environmental Bureau said: “Legally-binding energy standards have done wonders to lower energy bills for homes and offices, so much so that energy use has dropped even as the British economy has grown and appliances have become more power-hungry. </p><br class=""><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">“Voluntary agreements have a place, but are generally ‘business as usual’ and no substitute for the real thing. If they became the norm, it would seriously harm our fight against climate change.”</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">Another passage in the draft text mandates that operators of energy networks grant access to gas and electricity “on commercial terms that are reasonable, transparent and non-discriminatory, including as between types of energy”.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">This could create an avenue for preventing the imposition of feed-in tariffs and other support schemes to encourage the uptake of clean energy, according to lawmakers in Brussels.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">The Green MEP Claude Turmes said: “These proposals are completely unacceptable. They would sabotage EU legislators’ ability to privilege renewables and energy efficiency over unsustainable fossil fuels. This is an attempt to undermine democracy in Europe.”</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">The environmental law consultancy, ClientEarth, was concerned that the new proposal effectively derogated responsibility for urgent climate change actions agreed at COP21 to the business sector. </p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">“Industry is not the right entity to lead the fight against climate change,” said ClientEarth’s lawyer, Laurens Ankersmit. “It is madness for the EU and the US to rely on it in this way.”</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">The energy chapter negotiations began <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/23/ttip-eu-negotiators-appear-to-break-environmental-pledge-in-leaked-draft" data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline" style="color: rgb(0, 86, 137); cursor: pointer; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); -webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; text-decoration: none !important;">as part of an EU push</a> for unlimited access to exports of the US’s relatively cheap liquefied natural gas, much of it derived from shale.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">The EU is committed to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 80% by 2050, as measured against 1990 levels – and pledged a 40% CO2 cut by 2030 at the Paris climate conference, last December.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">But the new text says that: “the Parties must agree on a legally binding commitment to eliminate all existing restrictions on the export of natural gas in trade between them as of the date of entry into force of the Agreement”.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">Other countries wanting to trade with the EU or US would also find themselves up against requirements that they remove trade barriers.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">The draft says: “The Parties shall cooperate to reduce or eliminate trade and investment distorting measures in third countries affecting energy and raw materials.”</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif;" class="">In 2013, the EU’s trade commissioner Karel de Gucht <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/23/eu-told-exxonmobil-that-ttip-would-aid-global-expansion-documents-reveal" data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline" style="color: rgb(0, 86, 137); cursor: pointer; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); -webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; text-decoration: none !important;">promised the multinational oil giant Exxon</a> that the energy chapter would remove obstacles to its expansion plans in Africa and South America.</p></div></body></html>