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)

ESSF | 23-Jul-2019
This is a story of the dodgy deal by a multi national company and then earning massive amount of money through a World Bank institution acting against developing countries.
The Age | 22-Jul-2019
Australian company planned was to mine tantulum, but seventeen years later, the company is suing the Egyptian government for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars after the military regime blocked plans.
Express Tribune | 19-Jul-2019
In the Reko Diq case registered by Tethyan Copper Company, the dollar-starved Pakistan has been slapped a penalty way beyond its reach by the World Bank-sponsored ICSID.
Euractiv | 19-Jul-2019
The European Commission and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline company are heading toward legal arbitration in their dispute, with a risk of huge fines for EU taxpayers.
Amigos de la Tierra | 18-Jul-2019
El acuerdo de Asociación Económica Integral Regional socavaría las normas de protección del medioambiente en Asia.
Total Slovenia News | 17-Jul-2019
Ascent Resources plans to lodge an investment treaty arbitration claim under the Energy Charter Treaty.
Express Tribune | 17-Jul-2019
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has declared that the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s judgment in the rental power projects case is ‘arbitrary’.
L’Humanité | 17-Jul-2019
L’État roumain en retirant son permis d’exploitation à une compagnie minière canadienne se voit aujourd’hui traîné devant les tribunaux internationaux.
El Periódico | 16-Jul-2019
El CIADI aceptó la conformación del panel arbitral que conocerá la demanda contra el Estado de Guatemala planteada por Daniel W. Kappes y Kappes, Cassiday & Associates, por la suspensión del proyecto minero Progreso VII Derivada El Tambor.
CNN Chile | 16-Jul-2019
El CIADI del Banco Mundial determinó que el país islámico deberá desembolsar 5.840 millones de dólares tras denegar ilegalmente la licencia minera para el proyecto Reko Diq.