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)

The Guardian | 1-Jun-2018
The logic to Trudeau’s action may lie in an obscure and overlooked 2014 agreement to ensure China got a pipeline built
Reuters | 30-May-2018
A Belgian court has lifted a freeze on about $21.5 billion (16.2 billion pounds) in Kazakhstan’s National fund assets imposed after a dispute with a Moldovan businessman, the Kazakh justice ministry said.
Oil Price | 25-May-2018
The amount of the frozen assets, when compared to the US$520 million court award, is pretty hefty, unprecedented.
Prensa Libre | 24-May-2018
Guatemala se expone a un nuevo arbitraje internacional con posibilidad de una demanda millonaria debido a la suspensión de operaciones del proyecto minero El Tambor, propiedad de Exmingua.
La Tercera | 24-May-2018
Ciadi desestimó la anulación de la sentencia que había solicitado Bolivia, por lo que tendrá que pagar la indemnización a Quiborax, firma ligada a la familia Fosk.
EIN | 24-May-2018
The Stati Parties have requested to enforce the award issued in their favor including by attaching Kazakh state commercial assets in the United States.
BN Americas | 24-May-2018
After a 14-year dispute between Quiborax and the Bolivian government, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) rejected Bolivia’s application to annul a US$48.6mn award in favor of the Chilean mining company.
BN Americas | 24-May-2018
Exmingua is planning to launch arbitration proceedings against Guatemala following the suspension of its Tambor gold project.
Deutsch Welle | 24-May-2018
The German cabinet has confirmed that two utilities operating in Germany are entitled to compensation for losses stemming from the country’s nuclear phaseout. The move is in line with an earlier top court ruling.
Natural Gas World | 23-May-2018
Ukraine is seeking damages from Russia following the expropriation of assets in the Crimea in 2014.