<
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210920/09324347599/fossil-fuel-companies-want-governments-to-pay-18-billion-bringing-laws-tackling-climate-crisis-largely-caused-fossil-fuel.shtml>
"Back in 2013,
Techdirt started writing about the boring-sounding
Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system. It was so boring, we decide to
use a better term for it: corporate sovereignty. It's an appropriate name,
since this system of secret courts effectively places companies above a
government, by allowing them to sue a nation if the latter takes actions or
brings in laws that might adversely affect their profits. It was originally
designed to protect companies that invested in unstable parts of the world, and
to discourage things like expropriation by corrupt officials. But clever
lawyers soon realized it was much more general than that, and could be used as
a weapon against even the most powerful — and stable — nations.
It allows deep-pocketed companies — typically multinational corporations — to
threaten governments with big fines if they pass laws or make decisions that
aren't to the companies' liking. That includes actions that are clearly
justified and in the interests of the country's citizens. For example, over the
years
Techdirt has written about how corporate sovereignty was used to
threaten governments that wanted to protect public health, even measures to
tackle COVID-19.
In 2015, this blog warned that the TAFTA/TTIP trade agreement under discussion
then would allow companies to challenge actions taken to protect the
environment, such as bringing in laws to tackle the climate crisis. TAFTA/TTIP
never happened, so fossil fuel companies have now turned to other treaties to
demand over $18 billion as "compensation" for the potential loss of future
profits as a result of recent decisions taken around the world to tackle
climate change."
Via Glyn Moody, who wrote "such lovely people…"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
