Read
online: http://www.world-psi.org/en/great-climate-change-swindle As Heads of State prepare to negotiate an
international accord in Paris against global warming, their trade negotiators
are meeting in Geneva to secretly forge a new free trade agreement that could
expand fossil fuels’ exploitation and cause further climate change.
Wikileaks
released yet another raft of leaked texts from the secretive Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). Public Services
International (PSI) and International Forum on Globalisation today released the first known analysis of the
proposed Annex on Energy Related Services to inform the COP 21 climate summit.
The 23 TiSA negotiators, from Australia to
Switzerland and including the US and the EU, are discussing binding clauses
“denying regulators the right to distinguish solar from nuclear, wind from
coal, or geothermal from fracking” by establishing the principle of
'technological neutrality’. The meeting in Geneva – from November 30 to 4
December – will likely continue discussion on the agenda item called
“Environmental Services”, discussed in October.
The proposal would “reduce states
sovereignty over energy resources – says Victor Menotti, author of the study -
by requiring states to establish free markets for foreign suppliers of energy
related services thereby removing the right to ensure domestic economic
benefits from exploiting energy resources.”
The European Commission’s website trade
page says “The EU will seek to end
discrimination against foreign suppliers of environmental services. This means
removing the existing barriers – not just abstaining from introducing new
restrictions.”
“This is the great climate change swindle.
As modest targets are being discussed in Paris, in Geneva the means to achieve
them are being negotiated away in the interests of the largest corporations on
earth,” commented Rosa Pavanelli, PSI General Secretary. “It is becoming clear
why our governments try to hide these negotiations by conducting them in
secret”.
Pavanelli called on the governments to
release the full texts saying “it is a scandal that we rely on Wikileaks to
tell us what our governments are doing on our behalf”.
PSI has previously released research
showing how the TISA will stop
failed privatisations being brought back into public hands, and how it will limit
governments’ ability to regulate.
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