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)

IISD | 26-Nov-2019
Un tribunal du CIRDI déterminait que l’Espagne avait violé le traitement juste et équitable au titre du Traité sur la Charte de l’énergie.
Prensa Libre | 25-Nov-2019
Se trata del primer caso en la cual se aplica la cláusula de solución de controversias (capitulo 18) del Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) entre Guatemala y Colombia.
Eje Central | 21-Nov-2019
Las nuevas reglas de la Sener violentan los derechos ambientales, destruyen el valor de activos de los proyectos energéticos, argumentan las empresas.
Politis | 21-Nov-2019
La France doit quitter le Traité sur la charte de l’énergie, car il est une arme entre les mains des multinationales pour ralentir ou bloquer des politiques climatiques ambitieuses.
IISD | 19-Nov-2019
In investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS), ironies do occasionally occur. Sometimes they’re bitter. Sometimes they’re carbon-intensive. Sometimes they’re radioactive.
Kluwer Arbitration Blog | 19-Nov-2019
Global investment governance needs to be redesigned for the 21st century, with people and the planet at the core.
HETQ | 18-Nov-2019
Roads to the Amulsar gold mine have been closed for a year and a half by residents of neighboring communities opposed to the mine operated by Lydian who is considering international arbitration.
Stock Market Wire | 12-Nov-2019
Aura Energy lodged a claim against Sweden to recover the losses incurred from the Haggan uranium project following the country’s decision to ban uranian mining.
Real Clear Politics | 5-Nov-2019
Petroceltic, a UK-based global energy company, has initiated arbitration proceedings against the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation.