Dr. Yamina Saheb:

I do not know when the connection went.

According to the International Energy Agency, 99% of investment in the energy sector is in fossil fuels rather than investment in renewable and clean energy sources. Therefore, by protecting foreign investment in energy supplies, we are protecting foreign investment in greenhouse gas emissions. As a basic principle, that does not align with the Paris Agreement. When you estimate the investments already protected under the ECT, they are found to be above the remaining carbon budget for all the EU 28, that calculation relating to the time when the UK was in the EU. Basically, therefore, we are protecting with the ECT what has already been done. We are protecting greenhouse gas emissions that are above the remaining EU carbon budgets. We cannot say that that aligns with the Paris Agreement.

As for the modernisation proposal, the Commission, on behalf of the member states, proposed to protect the investment that already exists until 2040 in the case of gas, if we can convert it to hydrogen, and to phase out and to stop protecting foreign investment in fossil fuels as soon as the new treaty is agreed. However, this proposal, first, is not Paris-compatible or climate-compatible and has been rejected by all other contracting parties-----