TPP Text Confirms A Handout to Fossil Fuels

After years of closed-door secret negotiations, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal is finally seeing the light, and the published text confirms that it is just as toxic a deal for the climate as expected.

A close look at the text reveals that the TPP would: rollback multilateral environmental agreements, weaken conservation rules, give new rights to the fossil fuel industry to challenge climate protections, and lock in natural gas exports and fracking.

350.org Policy Director Jason Kowalski issued the following statement:

"The TPP is an act of climate denial. While the text is full of handouts to the fossil fuel industry, it doesn't mention the words climate change once. The agreement would give fossil fuel companies the extraordinary ability to sue local governments that try and keep fossil fuels in the ground. If a province puts a moratorium on fracking, corporations can sue; if a community tries to stop a coal mine, corporations can overrule them. In short, these rules undermine countries' ability to do what scientists say is the single most important thing we can do to combat the climate crisis: keep fossil fuels in the ground.

The United States should be in the business of supporting the just transition to a 100% renewable energy, not propping up the fossil fuel based economy of the past. While institutions across the planet are divesting from fossil fuels, the TPP would double down on the industry's destructive business model. The agreement works at absolute cross purposes to governments' attempts to reach a strong climate deal in Paris. As the world accelerates towards a clean energy future, the TPP is a dangerous detour that must be avoided."

Zeph Repollo, Philippine Campaigns Coordinator of 350.org, who helped lead a massive protest against the TPP in the Philippines (photos below), added:

"Building inclusive economies for a better world requires people's participation and definitely not corporate manipulation. Locally, nationally, and globally, the people's movement to stop the fossil fuel industry that thrives in the same global economic order - favoring profits more than people-, is gaining momentum. The TPPA is a symptom of fear and desperation, a massive bid to overthrow any resistance people might throw at them. But people across all member parties, including non-member countries resist to be bound by the interest of corporate capitals. "