On Theresa May’s first day as Prime Minister (July 13), a petition to her by local groups Global Justice Now South Lakes and South Lakes Action on Climate Change collected 85 signatures from the public, mostly at the Birdcage in Kendal.

The petition insists that MPs get to vote on CETA – the EU-Canada trade and investment treaty – before it is implemented, and with the power to veto it. And we have presented it to Westmorland and Lonsdale MP and Liberal Democrat party leader Tim Farron to forward it the PM – hopefully with his endorsement.

CETA and TTIP (the equivalent EU-US agreement) have such wide-reaching effects and constraints on the futures of all of us (even if/when we leave the EU), that the EU Commission’s proposal to ‘provisionally apply’ CETA (that is, implement it) prior to parliaments having a vote of ratification is democratically unacceptable.

We also want the UK government to ensure that MPs have enough time to thoroughly scrutinise CETA’s text, especially its chapter for investor protection - which gives foreign companies and transnational corporations (TNC’s) the exclusive privilege of their own separate court system to sue governments millions or billions in compensation for any future profits they might lose as a result of changes in policy or laws.

Because over 80 per cent of US companies or TNCs operating in the EU also operate in Canada, the Investor State Dispute Settlement text (ISDS) in CETA would also expose the UK to legal threats from the big US TNC’s such as oil and gas companies – who want to use ISDS to suppress climate legislation.

The ISDS has a track record of being used by fossil fuel and mining companies. For example a fracking company is using the ISDS to sue Canada over $100 million dollars for future profits it claims it would lose as a result of Quebec putting a moratorium on fracking.

CETA and TTIP would also constrain our democratic means to limit trade and investment in the dirtiest of fossil fuels. They have already diluted climate legislation designed to limit the import of higher carbon unconventional fuels from Canada and the US, such as from the tar sands – which have carbon emissions 23 per cent higher than conventional oils.

And TTIP includes text protecting the expansion of a new US fossil fuel industry: for the export of US fracked gas – which has a carbon intensity worse than coal due to its fugitive emissions of methane.

It is thus essential for our climate and democracy that at the very least our MPs get to vote on these fossil-friendly treaties. On Saturday, August 13 we will again be at the Birdcage: do visit us and find out more.

Henry Adams

Kendal