Dr. Lorna Gold:

On the issue of climate change, that weak document appeared in the middle of the Paris negotiations, which I attended. It created a atmosphere of suspicion within civil society but also on the part of other countries who were unaware of the way the EU was planning to negotiate on the issue. The TTIP is predicated on an economic model that relies on fossil fuels being used on current and increasing rates marginally, but then increasing rates towards the middle of the century. We do not trade with the US in renewable energy but we do trade in oil and other fossil fuels. It is predicated on a model of ever-increasing consumption and production, which we know must be addressed if we are going to address climate change. Therefore, it does not factor the reality of climate change into the agreement. There has been no open debate on how this model relates to the issue of climate change. A very interesting study by the International Institute for Environment and Development has just come out. It puts figures on the carbon costs of a projected TTIP. I do not have them at the moment. It basically says that the costs will be very high in terms of the lock in that the TTIP will ensure towards the middle of the century in terms of fossil fuels.

Its effect on third countries like developing countries in respect of their lack of capacity to tackle the kind of measures that need to be taken to mitigate climate change is very serious. If one looks at President Obama's move to stop the building of the Keystone XL pipeline as the first major infrastructure cancellation on the grounds of climate change and the fact that the US Government is now being sued for $15 billion by TransCanada for that, one can see that a small developing country that wants to take similar measures on a much smaller scale to address climate change mitigation will not have the capacity to challenge these kinds of companies. The turnover of these companies often far exceeds the entire budget of countries for a year. There is an imbalance there which the TTIP does not take into account. From a climate change perspective, it is a serious concern.