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)

Nasdaq | 24-Jul-2017
Citigroup offered US$200m of Argentina bonds for sale as part of an arbitration agreement to help settle the sovereign’s obligations to French oil company Total.
Página 12 | 20-Jul-2017
El Ministerio de Finanzas entregará a la petrolera francesa Total bonos por 210 millones de dólares para finalizar el juicio que la compañía mantenía contra el país en el tribunal arbitral dependiente del Banco Mundial.
Portal Minero | 18-Jul-2017
La compañía recurrió en 2011 al Ciadi, luego que el gobierno del país islámico negara la licencia de la iniciativa, lo que acusan fue de manera ilegal.
Reuters | 17-Jul-2017
La minera canadiense Crystallex ganó en una corte estadounidense una medida que prohíbe a la empresa china Haitong International Securities Group transfiera activos propiedad de Venezuela.
Miningmx | 17-Jul-2017
AngloGold Ashanti joined Acacia Mining in entering into arbitration over legislative changes in Tanzania which entitles the East African country’s government to renegotiate business agreements with mining firms.
The Nation | 17-Jul-2017
Pakistan has rejected $11.5 billion damages claim made by the Tethyan Copper Company ltd (TCC) a joint venture between Antofagasta and Canada’s Barrick Gold Corporation in the Reko Diq case.
Reuters | 17-Jul-2017
Canadian miner Crystallex has won U.S. court approval to bar China’s Haitong International Securities Group Ltd from transferring securities owned by Venezuela, in a move to recoup damages from an expropriation by the OPEC nation.
Mondaq | 17-Jul-2017
APR Energy PLC and Nucoal have been making noise about bringing investor-state claims against Australia
Lexology | 13-Jul-2017
A number of the provisions of the new legislation are inconsistent with the protections afforded to qualifying investors under agreements such as bilateral investment treaties.
CDE | 12-Jul-2017
La justice américaine a rejeté une requête d’ExxonMobil lui demandant d’ordonner au Venezuela d’honorer une décision internationale imposant à Caracas de lui verser 188 millions de dollars pour avoir nationalisé un actif pétrolier en 2007.