On 24 November, the European Parliament approved a resolution rejecting the reform of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). Instead it calls for a joint EU withdrawal from the Treaty. A few days later, Reuters reported that A Netherlands court ruled that the state does not have to compensate German energy suppliers RWE and Uniper for the decision to close coal-fired energy plants in the Netherlands by 2030, under the ECT. It ruled that the government had acted in good faith in reducing the emissions of the Netherlands. Both operators should have expected the announcement given their high levels of GHG emissions, and the court found they had sufficient time to adjust. We have previously reported on the risks of the ECT for African states and the importance of abandoning plans to accede to it.
