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)

Le Vif | 24-Aug-2023
Faute de consensus intra-belge, la Belgique se refuse toujours à quitter le TCE, en dépit de sa dangerosité, du départ de dix pays européens (dont tous ses voisins) et de son incompatibilité avec le droit de l’Union européenne.
Mining.com | 23-Aug-2023
Disputes between governments and investors involving mineral assets are growing rapidly – with 60% of all arbitrations over the last fifty years filed in the last decade, a new study found.
RCI | 22-Aug-2023
Según la Agencia Nacional de Defensa Jurídica de Colombia, en marzo de 2023 había 14 casos abiertos contra Colombia y 8 en fase de prearbitraje, por un total de 17 883,56 millones de dólares canadienses reclamados por empresas transnacionales.
Climate Change News | 16-Aug-2023
The Energy Charter Treaty, which Spain is trying to leave, protects investments in fossil fuels and in renewables.
Veblen | 16-Aug-2023
La procédure d’arbitrage engagée par l’entreprise énergétique allemande RWE contre l’État néerlandais sur la base du traité sur la charte de l’énergie est irrecevable au regard du droit de l’Union européenne.
Ecofin | 16-Aug-2023
La Tanzanie a demandé au CIRDI d’annuler sa décision récente obligeant son gouvernement à verser une indemnité de plus de 100 millions USD à la compagnie minière australienne Indiana Resources.
Cajar | 15-Aug-2023
Hoy, la Misión Internacional #FrenemosLasDemandasDeTransnacionales lanza su informe final, rechazando el abuso de poder de las empresas transnacionales a través de demandas multimillonarias en contra de Colombia y haciendo un llamado a la administración de Gustavo Petro y Francia Márquez a retirarse del sistema injusto de protección de inversiones extranjeras.
JWN | 14-Aug-2023
The World Bank arbitration court awarded $77 million to Exxon Mobil Corp. in a resubmitted claim worth $1.4 billion over the nationalization of Venezuela’s Cerro Negro and La Ceiba crude projects in 2007.
CIAR Global | 3-Aug-2023
Un tribunal alemán ha declarado que los países miembros de la Unión Europea pueden eludir el arbitraje del Centro Internacional de Arreglo de Diferencias relativas a Inversiones (CIADI) presentado al amparo del Tratado de la Carta de la Energía (TCE).
SOMO | 28-Jul-2023
Dutch taxpayers have already incurred € 5.4 million in arbitration costs in RWE and Uniper cases.