As part of its struggle for social and environmental justice, over the last few years, Emmaus International has been involved in various campaigns to hold multinationals to account, advocating the adoption of binding rules and calling for the scrapping of trade agreements that have devastating effects on the climate and human rights. Recently, we have been working alongside other civil society organisations and collectives to call for the scrapping of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT).
The ECT is an international treaty which gives fossil fuel companies the power to sue states when their governments pass climate laws that threaten their interests. In order to avoid being summoned to court and having to pay out billions of euros, states often prefer to waive the laws in question. This is a major obstacle to states taking climate action!
In response to the modernisation process that began several years ago, the XXX coalition, of which Emmaus International is a member, has continued to call for the scrapping of this treaty, which is completely at odds with the commitments made by the states on climate change (Paris Agreement). In October, we celebrated a small victory as Spain, the Netherlands and France withdrew from this treaty.
This is, without a doubt, one of the first times that pro-globalisation rules have been officially recognised as being incompatible with the fight against climate change. This is an important breakthrough!
However, we must remain active! Several trade agreements (such as the EU-Mercosur agreement) are still on the table, threatening ecological transition and the wellbeing of entire populations.
>> Find out more here (in french)
