Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1506906
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 3 SEPTEMBER 2023 NEWS JobsPlus Permit Number: 617/2023 The Authority for integrity in Maltese Sports is looking for an Intelligence Officer. The applicant is expected to be analytical, curious and shall have a general interest in sports. The role includes data analysis, sport related investigations and promotion of the ideal of Sport Integrity and Clean Sports. The candidate shall be in possession of an undergraduate degree (at MQF Level 6) ideally in Criminology, Finance, IT, Management or a related subject. The ideal candidate shall be IT knowledgeable, especially s/he shall know how to navigate on various IT applications and social media and shall be prepared to work on weekends when this is required. Interested applicants are invited to send their application via email. The application shall include a covering letter, a CV and a recent police conduct. Applications will be accepted until the 15 th of September 2023 at noon. Applications including the above-mentioned documents are to be sent to the following address: ryan.c.borg@aims.org.mt MATTHEW VELLA CLIMATE activists have called on Malta's minister for the environment to withdraw the island from its membership of the En- ergy Charter Treaty (ECT), an investor protection pact seen as inimical to Eu- rope's decarbonisation efforts. Friends of the Earth Malta director Mar- tin Galea De Giovanni and climate coordi- nator Suzanne Maas wrote to Miriam Dal- li saying the ECT was blocking countries' ability to accelerate their energy transition. The multilateral treaty allows fossil fuel companies to sue over changes in poli- cy like banning offshore drilling or coal phase-outs that affect their investments. It has allowed investors to make high claims for damages in response to domes- tic energy and climate policies: in August 2022, the ECT forced Italy to pay €240 million to the British oil and gas compa- ny Rockhopper; and the Netherlands was targeted by claims of allegedly €2.4 billion from German energy giants RWE and Un- iper in response to its policy to phase out the use of coal. Germany, France, and Poland have offi- cially notified their withdrawal from the Treaty. The Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia, and Luxembourg have committed to do so this year. The European Parliament also voted in favour of a coordinated EU withdrawal, and the European Commission also now supports this option. "It is obvious that reforming the Energy Charter Treaty is not a viable option, and thus the European Commission has con- cluded an EU withdrawal is 'unavoidable'," Galea de Giovanni said. "Malta should support a full and coordi- nated EU withdrawal. This approach is the safest and most comprehensive solution to the ECT impasse. EU member states need to recover their full regulatory space to deal with the ongoing energy crisis and manage a swift and just transition away from fossil fuels." FOE said that ahead of the next discus- sions at the Energy Working Party of the Council of the EU in March, Malta can demonstrate climate leadership by taking steps to support a coordinated EU with- drawal from the Treaty. Some EU member states fear that with- drawal may not end future claims if the EU remained a party to the agreement: leav- ing the pact is not easy because of a sunset clause allowing lawsuits to be filed for 20 years after a member leaves. If EU countries leave together, that low- ers the risk of governments being sued, green alliance CAN Europe says. The three-decade-old ECT is the world's most-used investment treaty. It was orig- inally designed to protect energy invest- ments in post-communist countries. In- vestigate Europe estimates €344.6 billion of investments are protected under the ECT. But the pact has turned into a straitjack- et for countries seeking to decarbonise, as they can be hit with hefty lawsuits from firms claiming damages for lost profits. Some 158 ECT signatories have faced lawsuits since 2001, with a surge in cases starting in 2015 following the Paris climate agreement that committed countries to faster efforts to cut greenhouse gas emis- sions. Malta called to leave treaty that punishes climate action The multilateral treaty allows fossil fuel companies to sue over changes in policy like banning offshore drilling or coal phase-outs that affect their investments