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)

TNI | 26-Oct-2021
En los últimos 10 años el Estado español ha recibido más demandas de arbitraje de inversión que cualquier otro Estado. Con 50 casos en total, es hoy el segundo país en el mundo con más demandas en tribunales arbitrales internacionales.
Collectif Stop Tafta | 25-Oct-2021
L’investisseur russe porteur du projet minier réclame 4 milliards € de réparation à la France.
Mediapart | 23-Oct-2021
L ’actionnaire majoritaire du projet minier de la Montagne d’or demande à l’État français de l’indemniser pour non-respect de ses investissements. Une procédure d’arbitrage international est en cours.
Animal Político | 20-Oct-2021
Entre 1995 y 2020 se han presentado 303 demandas en contra de países de América Latina y el Caribe, siendo la segunda región más demandada del mundo. Los inversionistas han obtenido resultados favorables en un 62,6% de los casos y las demandas les han costado a los gobiernos alrededor de 32.141 millones de dólares.
New Straits Times | 20-Oct-2021
Sudan’s government confiscated Petronas’s assets on the grounds that they were acquired "through illegal means" during Omar al-Bashir’s regime. Some argue that Sudan is turning on its allies "under the pretext of fighting corruption".
The Malaysian Reserve | 15-Oct-2021
PETROLIAM Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has led a request for arbitration at the International Centre for Settlement of Dispute in the absence of positive development on Sudan’s transitional government’s decision to confiscate the company’s assets in Khartoum, Sudan.
AFTINET | 13-Oct-2021
While the tribunal has yet to make a decision about compensation to be paid, Eco Oro Minerals is claiming nearly $700 USD million.
The Monitor | 13-Oct-2021
A Canadian company’s successful challenge to a precautionary mining ban in Colombia shows how little investor–state dispute panels care about the right to regulate.
Collectif Stop Tafta | 11-Oct-2021
Jusqu’à quand la France, et l’UE, vont-elles accepter de rester membre d’un Traité qui sape les politiques de transition énergétiques ?
CIAR Global | 23-Sep-2021
TS Villalba y otros presentaron la demanda de arbitraje el 16 de septiembre de 2021 para reclamar al Estado español una indemnización por el recorte de las primas a las energías renovables.