The government has claimed Rishi Sunak’s new £1.9 billion tax break for fossil fuel companies is not technically a subsidy and so compatible with its climate plan. Green groups lambasted ministers for playing “semantics” with the planet over the new incentives to invest and oil and gas production – announced just months after the UK’s own climate summit promised to put an end to them. The chancellor’s doubled the rate of tax relief for oil and gas projects in his Budget, a measure that is expected to cost taxpayers nearly £2 billion and produce 899 million tons of extra CO2.
Independent 22nd June 2022 read more »
Young people in Europe impacted by climate change are suing their countries for involvement in a treaty that protects fossil fuel companies. Five people, aged between 17 and 31, directly affected by flooding, forest fires and hurricanes are going to the European Court of Human Rights to protest against their government’s involvement in the energy charter treaty (ECT). The ECT is a relatively-secretive international agreement which allows fossil fuel companies to sue governments for lost profits from climate reforms. This will be the first time the court, based in Strasbourg, France, will debate the treaty and the claimants are suing 12 counties for their involvement. The countries are Britain, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland, all of whom are signed up to the treaty. The claimants are arguing that membership of the ECT violates the right to life and right to respect for private and family life – articles eight and two of the European convention on human rights.
Independent 22nd June 2022 read more »