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)

Greenpeace | 30-Sep-2024
completamente las decisiones tomadas por la Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT) de negar la autorización de la Manifestación de Impacto Ambiental (MIA) al proyecto “Don Diego” en el Golfo de Ulloa
Mongabay | 27-Sep-2024
Odyssey Marine Exploration, a deep-sea mining company based in Florida, sued Mexico after rejecting environmental permits for a phosphate mining project off the coast of the state of Baja California Sur.
CIAR Global | 23-Sep-2024
“Debido a las serias deficiencias de la resolución, y considerando las críticas expuestas por el árbitro disidente, la Secretaría de Economía iniciará un juicio de anulación del laudo ante las cortes competentes. Asimismo, el Gobierno de México hará valer todos los medios de defensa posibles.”
CIAR Global | 18-Sep-2024
La compañía estadounidense Odyssey Marine Exploration ha informado del laudo en el arbitraje de inversiones iniciado en 2019 contra México en el Centro Internacional de Arreglo de Diferencias relativas a Inversiones (CIADI).
Business Wire | 18-Sep-2024
The award orders Mexico to pay US$37.1 million for breaching its obligations under NAFTA, plus interest.
The Australian | 17-Sep-2024
The solicitor-general has pilloried Clive Palmer’s $300bn legal claim against Australia as weak, absurd and demonstrably in­adequate.
TNI | 12-Sep-2024
In 2021, Rio Tinto filed a notice of dispute related to the government announcement to cancel the Lithium project in the Jadar Valley under the UK-Serbia bilateral investment agreement.
ISDS América Latina | 9-Sep-2024
En 2023 México fue el país que más demandas de arbitraje de inversión recibió en el marco de tratados de protección de inversiones a nivel mundial.
Morocco World News | 9-Sep-2024
The SAMIR affair, dating back to the refinery’s 2015 closure, has seen Morocco and Corral Holdings locked in a bitter dispute before the ICSID tribunal.
Maroc Hebdo | 9-Sep-2024
Le Maroc a déposé un recours en appel contre le premier jugement rendu par le CIRDI. D’un autre côté, le groupe saoudien n’a pas, non plus, obtenu ce qu’il voulait.