Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what plans her Department has to expand the scope of investment protection in the Energy Charter Treaty to include hydrogen, biomass or other new technologies; what assessment she has made of the implications of such an expansion; and will she make a statement.

Member States of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) are currently engaged in a process to modernise the Treaty. The UK will ensure that, as the modernisation process develops, the Treaty delivers for the Government’s priorities and will consider, together with ECT members, the case for extending the scope of the ECT to include additional forms of energy and energy technologies.

We welcome the role of the ECT in ensuring consistent legal protection for UK investors operating abroad. This means that UK companies investing in other countries that have signed the Treaty have more protection for their assets, including renewable energy production.