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Energy & environment

Most investor-state disputes (ISDS) have concerned environmental matters. Corporations are using the ISDS system found in trade and investment agreements to challenge environmental policies. As of end of 2019, 41% of all ICSID cases were energy and natural resources-related.

Most well-known cases include:

• Lone Pine Resources (US) vs. Canada: the investor challenged Quebec’s moratorium on the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for natural gas. The provincial government declared the moratorium in 2011 so as to conduct an environmental impact assessment of the extraction method widely accused of leaching chemicals and gases into groundwater and the air. Case pending (NAFTA invoked).

• Bilcon (US) vs. Canada: the US industry challenged Canadian environmental requirements affecting their plans to open a basalt quarry and a marine terminal in Nova Scotia. In 2015 the ISDS tribunal decided that the government’s decision hindered the investors’ expectations. Bilcon won and received US$7 million in damages, plus interest (NAFTA invoked).

• Vattenfall (Sweden) vs. Germany: in 2007 the Swedish energy corporation was granted a provisional permit to build a coal-fired power plant near the city of Hamburg. In an effort to protect the Elbe river from the waste waters dumped from the plant, environmental restrictions were added before the final approval of its construction. The investor initiated a dispute, arguing it would make the project unviable. The case was ultimately settled in 2011, with the city of Hamburg agreeing to the lowering of environmental standards (ECT invoked).

Photo: Kris Krug / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

(March 2020)

Canadian company threatens El Salvador with CAFTA lawsuit over mining project
Upside Down World | 22-Dec-2008
A Canadian mining company intends to sue El Salvador’s government for several hundred million dollars if it is not granted permission to open a widely unpopular gold and silver mine that scientists warn would have devastating effects on local water supplies.
CAFTA , Canada , El Salvador , investor-state disputes | ISDS , mining
El Salvador warned of CAFTA-DR lawsuit by mining company
| 13-Dec-2008
A Canadian mining company and its American subsidiary have threatened the government of El Salvador with a lawsuit after it failed to receive regulatory approval to begin digging for gold and silver in an area some 65 km from San Salvador. The proposed mine has drawn intense opposition from civil society and church-based groups, although the mining company maintains that it enjoys broad public support in El Salvador.
CAFTA , Canada , El Salvador , investment | BITs , investor-state disputes | ISDS , mining
Algeria prevails in dispute with Italian construction firms
IISD | 3-Dec-2008
In a 12 November 2008 final award, an ICSID tribunal has dismissed all claims by two Italian investors, L.E.S.I S.p.A. and ASTALI S.p.A, in a dispute with the government of Algeria over a failed contract to construct a hydraulic dam.
Algeria , energy , investor-state disputes | ISDS , Italy
El Salvador: ¿Es cierto que Pacific Rim se retira del país?
Diario Colatino | 10-Jul-2008
¿No será que el anuncio de retirada de Pacific Rim es una acción táctica de su estrategia de presión? Eso parece demostrar cuando envía a un grupo de supuestos trabajadores mineros a protestar por la pérdida de sus empleos, y cuando amenaza al gobierno con acogerse a las reglas del CAFTA para obligarlo a pagar millonarias indemnizaciones
El Salvador , investor-state disputes | ISDS , mining
Venezuela: Gov’t celebrates British ruling against Exxon
IPS | 19-Mar-2008
Venezuela celebrated, as a triumph for countries of the developing South, Tuesday’s ruling in its favour by a British court in a legal dispute with US oil giant Exxon Mobil, which overturned an earlier court order to freeze around 12 billion dollars in Venezuelan assets.
energy , investor-state disputes | ISDS , Venezuela
Sempra Energy awarded $172 million in Argentine arbitration
CNN | 3-Oct-2007
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington DC has awarded Sempra Energy approximately $172 million, including interest, to settle a 2002 dispute involving the company’s 43-percent ownership in two Argentine natural gas holding companies, Sodigas Pampeana and Sodigas Sur.
Argentina , energy , investor-state disputes | ISDS
Ecuador pursues trade-preference extension but faces critics in Congress
| 12-Jun-2007
Ecuador is furiously lobbying members of Congress to extend trade preferences, set to run out at the end of the month, that are intended to counter narcotics trafficking.
Ecuador , energy , ICSID , investor-state disputes | ISDS , US
Claim against ROA Government
| 9-Apr-2007
Global Gold mining company submitted its claim to the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a body adjunct to the World Bank, against the Government of the Republic of Armenia (ROA). The Company is trying to protect its investment rights in arbitration court.
Armenia , ICSID , investment | BITs , investor-state disputes | ISDS , mining , US
Italian lawsuit against SA government reinforces historical injustice
Moneyweb | 30-Mar-2007
Finstone Ltd SA, a foreign mining company based in Luxembourg, is suing the South African government for an alleged expropriation of its mineral rights. Finstone is a holding company in control of three South African granite producing operations i.e. Marlin, Red Graniti and Kelgran. The real challenge posed by this legal action is that the abovementioned investors find the black economic empowerment programme is in violation of the bilateral treaties signed with South Africa by both Luxembourg and Italy.
investor-state disputes | ISDS , Italy , Luxembourg , mining , South Africa
US mining firm sues Armenian government
| 22-Mar-2007
A US company mining gold in Armenia has initiated an international arbitration of its bitter dispute with Environment Minister Vartan Ayvazian whom it accuses of corruption and other violations of the law.
Armenia , ICSID , investor-state disputes | ISDS , mining , US