Josh Jackson acts in European Court of Human Rights case regarding the Energy Charter Treaty

Josh Jackson

Five young people have filed a case before the ECtHR challenging the compatibility of 12 States’ membership of the Energy Charter Treaty with their ECHR rights

The claim, filed on 21 June 2022, has been brought by five young people affected by climate disasters against 12 European States regarding their membership of the Energy Charter Treaty. The Energy Charter Treaty is an energy investment treaty which affords private investors in the energy sector extensive protection against regulatory changes and access to exorbitant remedies through the Energy Charter Treaty’s investor-State dispute settlement mechanism. It is widely reported to inhibit States from limiting their emissions and production of fossil fuels by creating a regulatory chilling effect.

The Applicants’ starting point is that States are required under the Articles 2, 8 and 14 ECHR to regulate and limit emissions in a manner consistent with keeping global warming to 1.5℃. The Applicants argue that the Energy Charter Treaty in its current form is incompatible with the ECHR in that it impedes States’ ability to limit their emissions and carry out the energy transition in order to limit global warming to 1.5℃. The Applicants allege that the Respondent States have breached their ECHR rights by failing to take reasonable steps to remove the impediments to emissions reductions and energy transition created by the Energy Charter Treaty.

Josh Jackson is instructed as a consultant by the Global Legal Action Network to support French lawyer Clementine Baldon of Baldon Avocats.