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)

CIAR Global | 27-Feb-2023
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RTBF | 21-Feb-2023
La Région bruxelloise, par la voix de son ministre de la transition climatique, Alain Maron, appelle la Belgique au retrait coordonné européen "le plus rapide possible de ce Traité anachronique de protection des investissements dans les énergies fossiles".
CIAR Global | 20-Feb-2023
La jueza Tania S Chutkan del Tribunal de la Corte de Distrito de Columbia (EE.UU.) ha ordenado a España que afronte el arbitraje de NextEra y desista de buscar eludir el laudo de más de 290 millones de euros que concedió un tribunal internacional en marzo de 2019.
CNCD 11.11.11 | 15-Feb-2023
L’Union européenne et ses Etats membres vont se retirer du Traité sur la charte de l’énergie. La Commission européenne reconnaît aujourd’hui qu’une sortie coordonnée est inévitable.
L’Opinion | 14-Feb-2023
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Mining.com | 13-Feb-2023
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The Guardian | 13-Feb-2023
Secret international court system enables fossil fuel firms to sue governments for lost future profits.
Euractiv | 13-Feb-2023
Bern said it will not join the European Union’s proposed mass exit from a controversial energy investment protection treaty, sparking fears that fossil fuel companies will use Switzerland as a rear base to keep suing governments over climate action.
CIAR Global | 10-Feb-2023
La minera Berkeley ha informado del nuevo rechazo del Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico (MITECO) a autorizar la construcción de una planta de uranio en Salamanca.