Emmanuel Macron announces that France will withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty, deemed incompatible with the objectives of the Paris Agreement

France will withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty (TCE), Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday October 21 after a European Council summit in Brussels. France’s withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty was “an important point requested by many”conceded the head of state. This text, adopted in 1994, was deemed by several authorities to be too protective of fossil fuels and incompatible with the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

The High Council for the Climate (HCC) had already estimated Thursday in an opinion that France and the European Union should leave the TCE. For good reason: this 30-year-old treaty is incompatible with “decarbonization timetables” provided for in the Paris agreement.

The Energy Charter Treaty was signed in 1994, at the end of the Cold War, to offer guarantees to investors in the countries of Eastern Europe and the former USSR. Bringing together the EU and 52 countries, it allows companies to claim, before a private arbitration tribunal, compensation from a State whose decisions affect the profitability of their investments, even when it comes to pro- climate.

The European Union had obtained in June that the little-known TCE be reformed, but the compromise was deemed insufficient by the NGOs, who were asking the Europeans to withdraw from it. In an opinion issued Wednesday evening, the HCC agreed with them: “None of the scenarios possible at the end of the fifteenth round of negotiations (…) will allow the signatory parties to commit to a path of decarbonization of their respective energy sectors by 2030 and at the height of the ambition of the Paris agreement”.