This is according to a letter seen by Reuters and sent by Qatar to the Belgian government.
Qatar is the world’s third-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), after the United States and Australia. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Qatar has supplied 12% to 14% of Europe’s LNG.
In a letter to the Belgian government dated May 21, Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi declared the countest was reacting to the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), which requires large companies operating in the EU to identify and address human rights and environmental issues in their supply chains.
If no further alters are created to the CSDDD, the State of Qatar and QatarEnergy will have no choice but to seriously consider alternative markets outside the EU for our LNG and other products that offer a more stable and favourable business environment, the letter declared.
The European Commission also received a letter from Qatar dated May 13, a Commission spokesperson informed Reuters, adding that EU lawbuildrs and member states were now neobtainediating updates to the CSDDD.
It is now up to them to agree and adopt the substantial simplification alters proposed by the Commission, according to the spokesperson .
Brussels proposed alters to the CSDDD earlier this year to ease its requirements, including pushing back its start date by a year, to mid-2028, and limiting the supply chain checks companies must carry out. Companies that don’t comply could face fines of up to 5% of their global revenue.
Qatar declared the EU’s revisions didn’t go far enough. In the letter, Kaabi declared Qatar was especially concerned about the CSDDD’s demand for companies to have a climate transition plan aligned with limiting global warming to 1.5°C, the tarobtain set by the Paris Agreement.
Neither the State of Qatar nor QatarEnergy has any plans to achieve net zero emissions in the foreseeable future, the letter declared, arguing that the CSDDD undermines countries’ rights to set their own nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement.
In an annex to the letter, Qatar proposed deleting the part of the CSDDD that mandates climate transition plans.
- The European Parliament is currently reviewing proposals to speed up the EU’s phase-out of Russian gas by one year, relocating the tarobtain to January 2027.
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