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 Independent | 5-Aug-2019
The Armenian government is currently being sued by a corporation for two thirds of its entire government budget. If the UK crashes out on 31 October, it could suffer a similar fate.
Panam Post | 1-Aug-2019
Canadian mining company Crystallex recently won a $1.4 billion judgment against the Venezuelan government, which nationalized its assets.
Thomson Reuters Fondation | 31-Jul-2019
Ukraine’s state energy group Naftogaz has asked the Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration to force the Russian Federation to pay the Ukrainian company $5.2 billion compensation for assets lost in annexed Crimea.
Daily Times | 30-Jul-2019
It is astounding that the Supreme Court judgment is being criticised due to an unfair award by the ICSID tribunal against Pakistan when that judgment is completely defensible.
Euractiv | 29-Jul-2019
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline company has asked the Court of Justice of the EU to annul the amendments to the Gas Directive but Nord Stream 2 reserves itself this option of resorting to legal arbitration as well.
Express Tribune | 25-Jul-2019
The question for Pakistan now is what lesson can be learned from events that led to the ICSID Tribunal making a $5.9 billion award against the Government of Pakistan.
Daily Times | 25-Jul-2019
Pakistan has suffered at the hands of an unaccountable and defective dispute resolution mechanism at the hands of the ICSID, and following the examples of India, South Africa and Brazil, should never have become a part of the ICSID.
Cinco Días | 25-Jul-2019
Se trata de dos demandas por plantas fotovoltaicas y activos hidroelétricos.
Climate Home News | 24-Jul-2019
Campaigners are urging reform of an obscure system that allows coal, oil and gas companies to sue governments if climate policies hit their profits.
The Conversation | 23-Jul-2019
Abolishing ISDS won’t solve all of the problems of global economic governance. But it seems a very good place to start.