Big oil companies and their investors are suing governments to thwart climate change policies, Rishika Pardikar reported for The Lever in June 2022. These fossil fuel stakeholders claim that laws designed to address climate change are undermining their profits—and, therefore, that they must be compensated for any resulting financial losses. According to Pardikar, “such moves could have a chilling effect on countries’ ability to take climate action” because of the fear and uncertainty they cause.
One case featuring Vermilion, a Canadian oil and gas company, demonstrates how investor threats are making it difficult for countries to act against climate change. As described in Pardikar’s article, in 2017, France’s environmental minister at the time, Nicolas Hulot, drafted a law to end fossil fuel extraction by 2040. In response, the Canadian oil company threatened to use an “investor-state dispute settlement” (ISDS) to sue the French government, thus taking advantage of a provision that allows investors to sue governments for treaty violations. Due to the ISDS, Hulot’s climate change bill was diluted, enabling oil and gas companies to continue extraction after the originally approved 2040 deadline.
Other reports citing ISDS actions indicated that these efforts consistently benefit fossil fuel companies and their investors. Lea Di Salvatore’s 2021 inquiry into climate-related ISDS reports for the International Institute for Sustainable Development found that fossil fuel investors won their settlements 72 percent of the time. This resulted in fossil fuel investors being awarded more than $600 million in compensation.
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The situation has only gotten worse since fifty countries, most of them in Europe, enacted the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). Pardikar cited specific articles from the ECT that call for “fair and equitable treatment” of investors and “payment of prompt, adequate and effective compensation.”Additionally, in instances where governments obtain investor assets, investors can invoke clauses in the ECT to threaten legal action against lawmakers for future climate proposals.
The European Union (EU) recently attempted to push back by “revising” the ECT to account for climate goals. However, as The Lever reported, European Parliament Chairman Pascal Canfin announced that mediation efforts failed, and the ECT will likely “continue to be used by investors to sue states taking climate action.” Consequently, the chairman called on all EU countries to exit the Energy Charter Treaty.
Many climate activists and lawmakers are concerned that the ISDS system will prompt future actions against climate progress. Laura Létourneau-Tremblay, an international investment law researcher at the University of Oslo, explained that ISDS provisions requiring states to compensate fossil fuel companies could “prevent governments from taking ambitious climate actions.” Létourneau-Tremblay told The Lever, there are “real concerns as to whether the ECT is compatible with the net-zero energy transition.”
Shortly after President Biden revoked the Keystone Pipeline permits in January 2021, the Canadian company TC Energy took legal action against the US government. The company filed a lawsuit, citing a “responsibility to our shareholders to seek recovery of the losses incurred due to the permit revocation.” TC Energy won and was awarded $15 billion in damages.
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One of the most concerning aspects of the ISDS is that it offers foreign companies a loophole allowing them to avoid local courts––which frequently operate under stricter regulations. Instead, suits brought by companies against countries in which they have investments are decided by international arbitration tribunals, which are notoriously lacking in transparency. Moreover, under ISDS rules nations cannot file suits against foreign companies, they can only react to claims filed against them.
Grist published an article on the topic in January 2023, more than a year after Di Salvatore’s report for the International Institute for Sustainable Development. The Independentalso reported on fossil fuel companies suing governments, mentioning the ISDS and specific countries that have faced lawsuits (such as Italy and Slovenia). However, it only briefly touched on the concern that these lawsuits could prevent climate action. Beyond this handful of reports, the topic has received little coverage from major news outlets.
Rishika Pardikar, “Big Oil Is Suing Countries to Block Climate Action,”The Lever, June 8, 2022.
Lois Parshley, “The Secretive Legal Weapon That Fossil Fuel Interests Use Against Climate-Conscious Countries,”Grist, January 17, 2023.
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Kyla Tienhaara et al., “Investor-State Disputes Threaten the Global Green Energy Transition,”Science 376, no. 6594 (May 5, 2022): 701-03.
The celebrated chef and MasterChef judge has designed four seasonal menus for business class, first class and suite customers – available from October 2024 until November 2025.
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Boeing has withdrawn its pay offer to striking machinists as negotiations between the aircraft maker and union members stall and the company’s debt teeters on the edge of a junk rating.
“Our team bargained in good faith,” Stephanie Pope, chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, wrote to employees in a letter released late on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, the union did not seriously consider our proposals.”
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The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 said in an update on its website that Boeing was “hell-bent” on sticking to its now-rescinded offer made on September 23.
On Tuesday, S&P Global Ratings put the company’s triple B minus credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on a negative credit watch. Anything below triple B minus is considered a junk credit rating.
“The CreditWatch listing reflects the increased likelihood of a downgrade if the strike persists toward the end of the year,” S&P said.
Boeing’s September 23 offer sparked fury among the 33,000 IAM members employed by the plane maker who have been on strike since September 13. The union said the 30 per cent pay increase offered by the company circumvented normal bargaining by taking the offer directly to workers.
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“When we surveyed our members on that offer, the response was overwhelming — those who participated said it was not good enough,” IAM said on Tuesday.
The union added that Boeing, in its most recent negotiations, “refused to propose any wage increases, vacation/sick leave accrual, progression, ratification bonus [and] also would not reinstate the defined benefit pension”.
Pope, in withdrawing Boeing’s pay offer, said IAM “made non-negotiable demands far in excess of what can be accepted if we are to remain competitive as a business”.
IAM’s original demand was for a 40 per cent pay rise, as well as improved conditions. The machinists’ pay has risen 4 per cent over the past eight years.
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Boeing is struggling to improve its finances and operations after five punishing years that included two fatal crashes, a pandemic that curtailed travel demand and, most recently, an incident in which a door panel blew off one of its aircraft mid-flight.
The company has used billions of dollars in cash this year as it has slowed production to try to improve its manufacturing and quality processes. Analysts have said the company is also considering issuing equity of about $10bn to shore up its cash position.
Shares of Boeing are down about 5 per cent since the strike began on September 13.
In addition to the personnel losses, Ukrainian defenders have inflicted substantial damage on Russia’s military equipment.
Over the past day alone, four enemy tanks and eleven armored fighting vehicles were destroyed, bringing the totals to 8,944 tanks and 17,751 armored vehicles lost since the invasion began.
Other key figures include:
Artillery systems: 19,222 (+19)
Multiple rocket launchers: 1,223
Aircraft: 369
Helicopters: 328
Operational-tactical UAVs: 16,718 (+31)
Cruise missiles: 2,618
Vehicles and fuel tankers: 26,240 (+55)
The General Staff also noted that recent intelligence updates have led to some adjustments in the reported totals, particularly for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and aircraft.
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Despite the large number of losses, Ukraine continues to push back against Russian forces, with Ukrainian defenders recently destroying 180 Russian drones over the past week alone.
Villagers packed a public meeting to protest EDF’s plans to flood land to compensate for killing fish at Hinkley Point
How many fish does a nuclear power station kill?
It sounds grisly, but for the engineers on the Somerset coast building Britain’s first nuclear power station in a generation, it’s an urgent question.
And for conservationists and local villagers on the banks of the River Severn in Gloucestershire, it has become such an urgent question they filled a village hall to debate it.
Proposals for the sea-water cooling system at Hinkley Point C will see 44 tonnes of fish ingested and killed every year, according to EDF, the company building it.
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EDF
Five miles of tunnels have been bored under the Bristol Channel to bring in seawater to cool the steam at Hinkley Point C
“This scheme will decimate fish stocks,” said Dave Seal, a wildlife campaigner.
“We already have lost 80% of our salmon, and half of the salmon that get into Hinkley’s cooling system will be destroyed.”
But Andrew Cockroft, from Hinkley Point C, insisted there will be a “very very small impact on fish populations”.
Why so much water?
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At the heart of this row is a simple truth of physics – nuclear power plants, by design, get hot.
The steam drives enormous turbines which whizz around and generate electricity.
At Hinkley Point in Somerset, they’re about to install the nuclear reactor which will create all the heat in the first place. It’s still at least seven years before it will be switched on.
But first, they need to think about the fish.
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EDF
EDF has produced this diagram to show how water from the Bristol Channel will cool the steam which drives the turbines at Hinkley Point C
To keep the whole reactor cool, huge tunnels – five miles long – have been dug out underneath the Bristol Channel.
When the plant is up and running, 132,000 litres of seawater a second will be sucked in to a system that works like a huge car radiator.
The superheated steam that drives the turbines will pass along pipes surrounded by cold seawater, to cool it down.
The seawater will never get near the nuclear reactor, so is safe to pass back out into the sea.
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The River Severn at Arlingham, Gloucestershire, where EDF are considering creating a new ‘saltmarsh’ to breed fish.
But with the huge amount of water will come millions of fish.
The Bristol Channel is home to salmon, eels, herring, sprats, and dozens of protected marine species.
And nobody wants them to die just so we can turn our lights on and cook dinner.
Can they stop the fish?
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Engineers have done plenty of things to save the fish, including fitting a complex concrete ‘head’ to the pipes on the sea-bed, where the water comes in.
Narrow side vents allow water in, with grills to keep larger creatures out. Unlike previous power stations, it’s not just an open pipe sucking in seawater.
But they accept some fish will get through the grills.
In fact, they have estimated about 44 tonnes of fish will be ingested every year.
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Is that a lot?
For comparison, fishing vessels at Newlyn, in Cornwall, landed 1,700 tonnes in the month of July alone.
So in a year, the nuclear plant will “eat” about a day’s catch.
Andrew Cockroft from Hinkley Point C says the plant will have a “very very small impact” on fish populations
“In proportion, it’s a very very small number of fish,” said Andrew Cockroft, from Hinkley Point C.
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Nonetheless, the Environment Agency wants EDF, who are building the plant, to do something to help marine life.
How to compensate?
EDF planners are now trying to find 340 hectares (840 acres) of land on the banks of the River Severn they can flood to create new saltmarsh habitats.
There salmon, eels, and countless marine species will be able to breed.
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Mr Cockroft, who runs the public engagement programme for Hinkley Point, said saltmarshes are a “natural” compensation for the nuclear plant’s impact.
He said: “Saltmarsh reduces flooding. It provides shelter and breeding grounds for fish, it’s an amazing place for birds, and can be great for people too.”
The question now is, whose fields should be flooded?
More than 100 people queued to get into the village hall for a public meeting on EDF’s plans for a new saltmarsh near Arlingham
The village of Arlingham lies on a bend of the Severn, with fertile low-lying farmland around it.
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Proposals to breach the banks to create the new marshland have gone down very badly.
A public meeting held in the village hall to hear the plans from EDF’s team on Monday was packed out.
“We have fertile farmland, we have rare wildlife,” said one woman. “Hares, bats, hedgehogs. Why would you choose Arlingham?”
Another man told EDF representatives: “Arlingham is a unique part of the country, and I see no reason for you ruining that just to solve your problem with dead fish”.
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EDF’s team told the meeting they were hear “to listen, to collaborate”.
They had to find somewhere to create the new 340 hectares of saltmarsh, and Arlingham was one of four sites that fit the bill, they said.
But locals insist there is another, better, way.
Why have plans changed?
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The original plan for Hinkley Point approved by the government included a so-called ‘Acoustic Fish Deterrent’.
As the name suggests, a system of loudspeakers near the inlet pipes would simply scare fish away.
EDF says it no longer thinks that will work. Some fish cannot hear. Others, like dolphins and whales who use sonar for navigation, will be deafened.
Furthermore, EDF says the speakers would need to be maintained by divers working in the dark, at depth, in a risky location.
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Campaigners are unconvinced, and think the acoustic deterrent is far better than flooding 850 acres of land.
“You agreed the acoustic fish deterrent,” said Godfrey Bragg.
“And now you want to wriggle out of it and inconvenience all these people. It just gets you off the hook with your problem killing fish.”
Killing so many fish is “unacceptable”, said Dave Seal, a local wildlife campaigner
Dave Seal, a local wildlife campaigner, told the meeting that deterring fish was far better than allowing them to be ingested and killed.
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“Imagine a windfarm was killing 184 million birds a year, that would be a wholly unacceptable situation. So why is it ok to kill all these fish?” he said.
But in 2023 the Environment Agency agreed with EDF, and removed the requirement to install an acoustic deterrent from Hinkley’s licence to build.
So now they have to find someone happy to have their land flooded, without upsetting the neighbours.
PA Media
Teams worked through the night in Dec 2023 to lift a huge dome roof onto the reactor building at Hinkley Point C
Since 2016 I have watched engineers and builders work on Europe’s largest construction site, creating an extraordinarily complex power plant.
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They’ve had the biggest land-based crane in the world, nicknamed Big Carl.
It winched in a 245-tonne dome to cap the reactor building, itself the size of St Paul’s Cathedral roof.
But creating a new breeding ground for the River Severn’s salmon and eel populations may be one of the trickiest problems they have yet faced.
And until they have solved it, they cannot switch on the nuclear power station.
In this episode of In Conversation With…, Kimberley Dondo talks with William Marshall, CIO and Head of Wealth Investment at Hymans Robertson Investment Services. They dive into key topics like sequencing risk, debunking longevity myths, and how Hymans Robertson’s holistic approach supports clients in retirement. William also addresses how the Consumer Duty has shaped the focus on value for money, the balance between passive and active investing, and the role of factor investing in portfolio design. Tune in now:
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