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)

Reuters | 27-Nov-2023
Canada’s First Quantum intends to start arbitration against Panama, the Central American nation’s trade ministry and the company said, as Panama’s top court considers annulling a copper contract that opponents call unfair.
Africa Intelligence | 24-Nov-2023
The battle over block OPL 245 between Nigeria and Italian major ENI was suspended on 16 November.
Global Justice Now | 24-Nov-2023
Notes from the Energy Charter Treaty Conference reveal plans for the controversial Energy Charter Treaty to expand to more oil-producing countries.
Verfassungsblog | 22-Nov-2023
Australia is confronted with three multi-billion dollar investment treaty claims from a mining company, which serves as another illustration of how the international investment protection system poses a threat to an urgent and just energy transition.
Cadence Minerals | 21-Nov-2023
Cadence Minerals and its subsidiary REM Mexico Limited have issued a request for consultations and negotiations to the Government of Mexico under the United Kingdom-Mexico Bilateral Investment Treaty.
CIAR Global | 21-Nov-2023
La minera suiza Glencore International AG ha presentado la cuarta demanda de arbitraje de inversiones contra Colombia ante el Centro Internacional de Arreglo de Diferencias relativas a Inversiones (CIADI).
The Guardian | 20-Nov-2023
Officials fear secret courts will block climate action and divert billions into coffers of fossil fuel investors.
Mining Weekly | 20-Nov-2023
Mining corporations have taken steps to issue a notice and dispute and request for negotiations to the Ethiopian government over concerns at measures taken against Abyssinian’s investments in the Kenticha lithium and tantalum project in the country.
UCL Press | 17-Nov-2023
The Energy Charter Treaty can be deployed to expand the fossil fuel industry’s rights and contextually counter democratic forces that animate the ecological transition.
SOMO | 15-Nov-2023
German energy company RWE has announced its intention to withdraw its international arbitration proceedings against the Dutch state at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.