Blog Categories: Europe

Vast Polluter Subsidies in EU Emissions Trading Deal Irresponsible and Counterproductive, Say NGOs

NGOs Include Attac France, Corporate Europe Observatory, Ecologistas en Acción, Food & Water Europe, Friends of the Earth Europe, Global Justice Now, re:Common, the Transnational Institute

Brussels—The ‘trilogue’ negotiations concluded between the EU Commission, Parliament and Council in the early hours of the night has prolonged the future of the EU Emissions Trading System as a source of billions of euros in polluter subsidies, according to Attac France, Corporate Europe Observatory, Ecologistas en Acción, Food & Water Europe, Friends of the Earth Europe, Global Justice Now, re:Common and the Transnational Institute.

EU member states will potentially be able to use a sizable chunk of these funds to continue burning fossil fuels, with Poland, for instance, looking to prolong the lifespan of its aging coal infrastructure.

Commenting on the ‘trilogue’ deal, Corporate Europe Observatory’s climate campaigner Belén Balanyá said:

“Using emissions trading revenues to subsidy fossil fuels is extremely irresponsible and works directly against efforts to halt catastrophic climate change. Once again, it is obvious that the emissions trading system benefits big polluters far more than it does the climate. “

Maxime Combes of Attac France added:

“While an increasing number of member states are phasing out coal power, it is absurd that emissions trading revenues may end up supporting this type of fossil-energy generation in other parts of the EU.”

But coal financing is just the tip of the iceberg. Polluter subsidies linked to emissions trading revenues could reach close to €200 billion between 2021 and 2030. The largest share of this money is earmarked for free pollution permits to be handed to steel and cement producers, in order to help them delay the transition away from fossil fuels.

Food & Water Europe campaigner Frida Kieninger commented:

“While the EU touts its ‘climate leadership’ at the UN talks in Bonn, the emissions trading policy agreed in Brussels means the EU will continue to shirk its fair share of global climate action. Emissions trading is clearly a part of the problem rather than a climate solution.”

Notes to editors:

  • The ‘trilogue’ negotiations establish the rules for a new, fourth phase of the EU Emissions Trading System, which will run from 2021-2030. The ETS has consistently been used to undermine other climate policies, including energy efficiency and renewable energy. The example of coal-fired power generation shows how this could continue in the fourth phase. As well as offering direct subsidies to “modernise” coal generation, the extension of the ETS assumes that significant power generation from coal will continue until 2030. Yet an increasing number of EU countries are announcing plans to phase out coal-power generation in the next decade. Tougher standards on air pollutants, passed this summer as part of the implementation of the Industrial Emissions Directive, have put pressure on other countries to do the same.
  • Corporate Europe Observatory has highlighted the industry lobbying which skewed the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) in favour of polluting corporations, analysing how big polluters influenced the ETS reform to ensure it would serve their interests.

 

Advocacy Groups Release Legal Resource for Fighting Fossil Fuel Projects

New toolkit helps clarify EU legislation to challenge exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons
Brussels—Food & Water Europe – with the pro bono support of The Good Lobby – has released today the 1st guide through the jungle of European environmental legislation for activists and non-governmental organisations that oppose fossil fuel projects.

The Hydrocarbons Toolkit provides legal arguments for activists in the European Union (EU) against the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons in general (and shale gas/oil, tight gas/oil and coal-bed methane in particular) by referring to relevant articles of existing and binding EU law. It explains in accessible language the most relevant directives and regulations that are applicable to the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons.

More precisely, the toolkit discusses the individual pieces of legislation along the hydraulic fracturing process, starting from prior assessments to liability. For each Directive/Regulation it discusses the goal and scope, the most relevant provisions, limitations, and the general line of argument that activists and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can use to challenge the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons. Case law is discussed where relevant. Lastly, the toolkit establishes the procedural steps that citizens and/or organisations can take to contest a certain project on the EU level.

“Despite the abundant scientific evidence that methane emissions from oil and gas extraction in general and from shale oil and gas in particular are a significant driver of climate change, the EU Commission and Member States are nonetheless pushing for more unneeded gas projects in Europe,” says Andy Gheorghiu, Policy Advisor for Food & Water Europe. “Since we all know that we need to act quick to prevent the worst outcomes of global warming, we want to give activists free legal advice on how they could possibly fight these fossil fuel projects.”

“Alberto Alemanno, director of The Good Lobby”, says “this project epitomizes the importance of intensified collaboration between academics, professionals and EU civil society organisations. This tool-kit will guide future infirmed and evidence-based advocacy in the field so as to gain policymakers’ respect and trust. As such, it is a model for future co-operation”.

In one glance, NGOs or activists can see which regulations may provide legal arguments to fight oil and gas exploration/extraction projects in their countries. For more extensive information on the exact obligations and possible limitations of these regulations, download the toolkit here.

Contact: Andy Gheorghiu, Food & Water Europe, agheorghiu(at)fweurope.org, Giacomo Delinavelli, The Good Lobby, Giacomo(at)thegoodlobby.eu

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The Good Lobby is a skill-based volunteering network that makes European academics, legal professionals and students available on a pro bono basis to support non-governmental organisations working on key social and political issues at the European level. The Good Lobby does not engage in any actual lobby. It supports legal and policy advocacy carried out by NGOs across Europe, it fosters pro bono collaborations, it carries out advocacy training, and we connect communities of public interest actors.

 

Food & Water Europe’s Hydrocarbon Toolkit

Categories

Common Resources

DOWNLOAD PDF VIEW ON SCRIBD

The goal of this toolkit is to provide legal arguments to activists in the European Union (EU) against the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons (e.g., shale gas/oil, tight gas/oil, coal-bed methane) by referring to relevant articles of existing and binding EU law. It explains in accessible language the most relevant Directives and Regulations that are applicable to the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons. More precisely, the toolkit discusses the individual pieces of legislation along the hydraulic fracturing process, starting from prior assessments to liability. For each Directive/Regulation it discusses the goal and scope, the most relevant provisions, limitations, and the general line of argumentation that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can use to challenge the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons. Case law is discussed where relevant. Lastly, the toolkit establishes the procedural steps that citizens and/or organisations can take to contest a certain project on the EU level.

This toolkit focuses on regulation of the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons such as shale gas/oil, tight gas/oil and coal-bed methane; however, it is important to note that some negative impacts (water and soil con- tamination, methane emissions, earthquakes from wastewater disposal, as well as public health impacts) can occur even if hydraulic fracturing is not being used as a stimulation method.

Find out more in, ‘Food & Water Europe’s Hydrocarbon Toolkit.’

Block Bayer-Monsanto Merger, Says Major New Legal Study

Friends of the Earth Europe, WeMove.EU, Food & Water Europe, SumOfUs

For immediate release: Monday October 16

Brussels, October 16 – The proposed merger between Bayer and Monsanto should be blocked under EU competition law, according to a major new study from University College London to be released on World Food Day.

The authors of the report claim that the European Commission should be obliged to block the merger – which is currently under an in-depth investigation from the European Commission – even on a narrow reading of EU competition law.

The analysis concludes that the “Baysanto” merger should be blocked as:

  • It would reduce competition: It concentrates even further an already tightly-packed agriculture sector. Just three mega-companies (ChemChina-Syngenta, DuPont-Dow and Bayer-Monsanto) would own and sell about 64% of the world’s pesticides, and 60% of the world’s patented seeds.
  • It would raise prices and farmer dependency: One-stop inclusive packages of all services needed for agriculture (seeds, pesticides, and also “digital farming” products) would lock farmers into the company’s value chain, making them technologically dependent and facing price hikes in seeds and pesticides.
  • Asset selling won’t solve the crisis: Even if the Commission forces the companies to sell off some products the market is already so concentrated that divesting particular products will not address the merger’s negative effects on future competition in the seeds markets.
  • It would stifle alternative businesses: The three mega-corporations controlling the global food value chain would “entrench the market power of the dominant players for the decades to come”, thereby freezing more sustainable forms of agriculture

The academics also call on the European Commission to broaden its investigation of the merger to take into account the full social and environmental costs, as they are likely to “lead to important risks for food security and safety, biodiversity… [and risks for] affordable food prices, high quality of food, variety and innovation”.

Adrian Bebb, food and farming campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe said: “EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager has more than enough arguments to block the unholy alliance of Bayer and Monsanto, and send a strong signal that the EU is prepared to stand up to these mega-corporations in order to protect farmers, citizens and our environment.

“The consolidation taking place between these agriculture giants would have major impacts on the future of our countryside, rural livelihoods and our environment. It is vital that the European Commission widens its investigation to ensure that we retain the possibility to move agriculture onto a sustainable and resilient footing to help counter climate change and halt biodiversity loss.”

Earlier this year over 200 civil society organisations called on European Competition Commissioner Vestager to stop the current wave of mergers in the agri-business sector. Almost 900,000 citizens have signed petitions calling for the Commission to act.

 

 

 

 

Meet the Secretive Chemical Billionaire Who Wants to Frack Europe

New Report Shows How Fossil Fuel Drilling Built the Ineos Empire

Brussels, 12 October 2017 —  Just days after the Scottish government extended its moratorium indefinitely on the dangerous drilling technique known as fracking, a new report sheds light on the links between one European billionaire’s chemical and fossil fuels empire and fracking in the United States.

The new issue brief, “Chemical Billionaire’s Bid for Fossil Fuel Empire,” was released by Food & Water Europe, an affiliate of the U.S.-based advocacy group Food & Water Watch. The research provides an in-depth look at the rise of Ineos Corporation, a massive and secretive chemical corporate colossus controlled by secretive billionaire James Ratcliffe.

The Ineos empire, once dubbed “near impenetrable business” by the Financial Times, was put together via debt-fueled takeovers of distressed corporate properties over the course of two decades. It now stands as one of the most powerful petrochemical companies in the world. The company manufactures an array of chemicals and products refined from oil and natural gas; imported U.S. gas derived from fracking is a key feedstock for one of its primary businesses, the manufacture of plastic pellets.

The company’s growth over the past decade relies heavily on fracking in Pennsylvania and Ohio, which has resulted in dramatically lower prices for gas. And the Ineos link to U.S. fracking is represented most dramatically by its fleet of so-called “dragon ships,” which carry gas and shale gas liquids across the Atlantic Ocean for processing at refineries such as the Ineos-owned facility at Grangemouth in Scotland.

And, as the new report shows, Ineos is not merely content with importing these fracking-derived feedstocks via this trans-Atlantic virtual pipeline. The company is the largest holder of shale drilling licenses in the United Kingdom, and is pushing hard to begin fracking. It has made substantial investments in fossil fuel infrastructure, and has lobbied politicians and local governments to approve drilling in order to kick start a European “shale revolution” that is likely to make the company even more profitable.

“Ineos is a dirty energy company that shuns the spotlight, and for good reason: The more you know about their vision for the future, the harder you will fight to stop them,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. “This is a company that has amassed giant profits at the expense of the environment and the communities in western Pennsylvania that have been harmed by fracking. And they want to expand the damage done by fracking to Europe. Thankfully, the grassroots opposition to dirty drilling and plastic waste is only growing, and political leaders are starting to listen. The future belongs to clean, renewable energy, not corporate schemes that promote fracking, climate chaos, and that contribute to the massive pollution of the oceans through the production of plastics.”

The growing public opposition to fracking in Northern Ireland and England and the indefinite moratorium in Scotland represents a serious threat to Ineos’s plans to frack Europe. The company’s business model is built around dirty energy extraction and corporate profiteering at the expense of public health, safety and the environment. That backwards-looking vision has proved disastrous for the communities on the frontlines of the disastrous fracking experiment in the United States.

Contact: Andy Gheorghiu, Food & Water Europe, agheorghiu(at)fweurope.org

+49 (0) 5631 50 69 507 (land), +49 (0) 160 20 30 974 (mobile)

Chemical Billionaire’s Bid for Fossil Fuel Empire: Ineos Corporate Profile

Categories

Common Resources

For the past decade, the United States has pursued a failed experiment in natural gas extraction known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

The fossil fuel industry touts fracking as a revolutionary technology that could deliver huge volumes of cheap, clean energy. But the fracking boom has been an environmental catastrophe in the United States.

DOWNLOAD PDF VIEW ON SCRIBD

The private and secretive chemical company Ineos has been leading the charge to bring this environmentally destructive method to the United Kingdom (UK) and mainland Europe.

However, the fracking “revolution” that Ineos promotes is a return to the past, where corporate executives profit from environmentally destructive extraction and the generation of dirty energy. In reality, fracked gas is incompatible with European Union (EU) and United Kingdom (UK) climate objectives, the Paris Agreement obligations and the need to act quickly to tackle climate change.

Find out more in, ‘Chemical Billionaire’s Bid for Fossil Fuel Empire: Ineos Corporate Profile.