Trade justice

Our day of action, Corporate Courts vs The Climate helped to reach many thousands more people and build the campaign.

Ahead of the day itself, we had great media coverage of our latest investigation, showing that fossil fuel companies are suing governments for more than $18bn (£13bn) in corporate courts over climate policies. These are corporations that have caused the climate crisis - they should be paying to fix it, not demanding a payout. The story made the headlines on Sky News and was shared quite widely over social media, including by other campaign organisations with quite a big reach.

The video of the story on Sky’s news bulletin is quite a good two minute explainer which could be useful to share in your group or on social media globaljustice.org.uk/sky-ECT

During the day of action: • In London we did a ‘Corporate Courts

Climate Circus’ walking tour of three of the law firms acting for fossil fuel companies in climate cases, with circus

stilt-walkers dressed as an oil baron and a lawyer. Watch the video of this at globaljustice.org.uk/climatecircus • GJN groups and local climate groups held protests and stalls. • We projected messages such as ‘Uniper: profiting from corporate courts’ and ‘Fossil fuel criminal’ onto one of Uniper’s power stations in the UK. • We projected ‘Corporate courts block climate action’ onto the offices of an

Edinburgh law firm that specialises in ISDS. • We ended the day with a webinar with great speakers from Bolivia, Argentina and Italy. If you weren’t able to make it, you can catch up with the recording at globaljustice.org.uk/18sep-webinar

Most of the fossil fuel corporate court cases that we’ve been highlighting (eg Uniper, RWE, Rockhopper, Ascent Resources) are using the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). This is a giant corporate court deal between over 50 countries specifically for energy investments. It’s been part of our campaign all year, alongside the Canada, Australia and CPTPP trade deals, and for the next few

weeks in the run up to COP26, we’re going to be focusing on the call to exit the Energy Charter Treaty before COP.

In July we and over 400 groups all across Europe made a joint declaration calling on our governments to ‘Exit the ECT by COP’. Our day of action last month was part of a wider month of action across Europe making this demand. Some governments are starting to listen – the French, Spanish, Greek, Slovenian and Polish governments, and the European Commission itself, have all said they will consider leaving. The UK is not there yet, but it could be if momentum builds.

US-UK trade action card 2.indd 1

So we’ll be keeping up the pressure on this issue right up to and during the protests around the UN climate talks on 6 November.

SW9 0LS Campaign postcards We’ll be handing in Freepost RRBA-HAEG-YUHJGlobal Justice Now66 Offley RoadLondon the petition signatures we’ve collected so far Global Justice Now 66 Offley Road, London SW9 0LS offleyroad@globaljustice.org.uk +44(0)20 7820 4900 globaljustice.org.uk ahead of COP, towards the end of October, so if you’ve collected Design: revangeldesigns.co.uk signed postcards,

back to the office by mid-October.

Having said this, we’d also like groups and activists to continue to use these postcards even after this first hand-in.

The wording makes them relevant at least until the end of 2021, and there is clearly an opportunity to build on the growing awareness around the threat of corporate courts to the climate.

design: nickcochrane.com 19/09/2019 17:22:04

The UK government is hoping to start trade negotiations with India at the end of year. We made a submission to the UK’s consultation, highlighting our concerns around agriculture, medicines, climate, corporate courts and digital rights. More than 4,700 of you co-signed the submission. We’re in touch with allies in India, and getting prepared for the talks to start.

Over the summer, Pakistan made the decision to get rid of corporate courts. It

Global Justice Glasgow at the offices of ISDS law form Clyde & Co. terminated 23 that it had previously signed which contained ISDS. This adds to the growing number of countries taking steps towards this – including India, New Zealand, South Africa, Tanzania and even the US itself.

The UK-Canada trade deal went quiet during the general election that took place in Canada last month, but is likely to get underway again in the coming months.

Don’t let corporate courts block climate action Campaign postcard (May 2021).

Climate injustice How corporate courts block climate action. Four-page briefing (March 2021)

breakdown Four-sided A5 leaflet (UPDATED September 2021)