Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, and while I was not in the Chamber when he made his speech, I was listening in. I thank him for the comprehensive update and outline of the loss and damage negotiations and commend him and the civil servants involved on the successful outcome of those negotiations and on getting a deal over the line. However, as with the Paris Agreement and all other agreements, the challenge now is to make sure there is no slippage. We need to build on the progress we saw at COP27.

I want to use my time to raise another issue of climate justice, one I have raised with the Minister many times as well as at meetings of the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action, namely, the Energy Charter Treaty. Why is Ireland remaining in the Energy Charter Treaty? The Minister is a member of the Green Party and he knows this dinosaur treaty puts governments and citizens on the hook for compensation for climate action that impacts the profits of fossil-based energy companies. The sort of action we need to be taking is not about protecting fossil fuel companies. I am also concerned this is an investor-state dispute settlement, ISDS, mechanism, which means cases are heard behind closed doors and citizens have no access.Judges who decide on cases have represented the same companies at previous tribunals. We have seen an exodus from the treaty. Belgium joined, as did France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland. They are all heading for the exit. For some unknown reason the Government is refusing to leave. It is even more astounding given the Supreme Court decision on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, which has shown how unconstitutional the investor courts are. We know the Energy Charter Treaty was signed up to with no debate under a caretaker government and it has an even more insidious form of investor courts. The writing is on the wall and has been for some time.

Consider the words of the boss of the Energy Charter Treaty, Guy Lentz. He made the extraordinary admission that it would definitely be better for the climate if the treaty did not exist. What are the benefits of being part of the treaty? I have concerns about the fact we are not joining those countries that have left. Is it that the Minister wants to see renewable energy companies protected by investor-state dispute settlement? This would be contrary to Green Party policy on investor courts. We have seen the effect of regulatory chill from the Energy Charter Treaty. The climate Act is much heralded but there are significant gaps in it, such as the failure to ban new licences for oil and gas exploration. The Government granted a licence extension to Europa Oil and Gas for exploration off the Mayo coast. The newspaper reports are very interesting when we dig deeper into them. They state the reason the licence extensions were granted was that because of the threat of action being opened up. The cost of compensating those companies would be too high and we would risk potential litigation. This is because of the Energy Charter Treaty.

From a climate justice perspective the Energy Charter Treaty can see the writing on the wall for itself. It is like the fossil fuel industry. It is scrambling for its own self-preservation. It is trying to make predatory moves into the global south to try to get a number of African countries. Burundi, Eswatini and Mauritania are at the ratification process. Niger, Chad, Gambia, Nigeria and Senegal are all at accession stage. The Energy Charter Treaty is actively targeting Kenya as a member country. It is trying to get these global south countries that are oil and gas rich on the hook and trapped into a treaty that has 20-year zombie clauses if they try to leave. This is the main question I have for the Minister. Why, as a Minister of the Green Party, is he not joining the other large European countries and leaving the treaty? If there was consensus at EU level to leave the Energy Charter Treaty, we could negotiate an inter seagreement that would mean we could null and void the 20-year zombie clause. This cannot be done unless the EU works as a bloc. Why is Ireland not joining those countries and calling for an exit from the Energy Charter Treaty?