AFTINET | 1 October 2025
AFTINET webinar: ISDS - Fossil fuel companies’ secret weapon against climate action and Clive Palmer case outcome
With COP30 in Brazil around the corner and with the prospect of Australia co-hosting COP31 next year, a major threat to effective climate action continues to fly under the radar: Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms in trade and investment agreements. ISDS allows international fossil fuel companies to sue governments for billions when a change in law or policy threatens their profits, undermining the urgent need to cut carbon emissions.
Australian billionaire Clive Palmer registered his mining company in Singapore and sued the Australian government in four separate cases. The first claim was for $300 billion against a Western Australian government decision to refuse an iron ore mining license. The last three claims for $120 billion are because a Queensland Court refused his coal mining license and a license for a coal-fired power plant for environmental reasons, including increased carbon emissions. The tribunal in the first case has found that Palmer was not a Singaporean investor, but is not clear if the other three cases will proceed. Palmer has also threatened further legal action.
Join us for a vital lunchtime webinar on Tuesday October 21 at 1pm AEDT with the latest research on how ISDS is being used to challenge climate policies worldwide, the next steps in the Clive Palmer cases, and what governments must do to remove ISDS and protect climate action.
Speakers:
- Dr Kyla Tienhaara (Queen’s University) – on global trends and ISDS threats to climate ambition
- Maria Poulos Conklin (ACF) – on climate goals, fossil fuel companies, and the risks of compensation claims
- Dr Patricia Ranald (AFTINET) – on the Clive Palmer cases and what Australia must do next
The webinar is free, but you must register in advance.
Speaker Bios:
Dr Kyla Tienhaara is Canada Research Chair in Economy and Environment and an Associate Professor in the School of Environmental Studies and the Department of Global Development Studies at Queen’s University, Kingston. Her research on environmental policy and governance, the energy transition and international investment law has been published as a book with Cambridge University Press and in prestigious journals such as Science, Climate Policy, and Global Environmental Politics. She is currently based in Adelaide during her sabbatical year (2025-26).
Maria Poulos Conklin joined the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) in 2021 as Parliamentary and Political Relations Manager. Prior to joining ACF, Maria spent 23 years as an Australian diplomat, where she served in various diplomatic and strategic policy roles throughout the Indo-Pacific, Africa and the EU. Maria is founder and convenor of the Save the Bay Coalition that campaigns for biodiversity conservation and heritage protection in Sydney. Maria holds a Master of Diplomacy and Trade from Monash University.
Dr Patricia Ranald, honorary AFTINET convener, has published widely on trade justice and ISDS for over twenty years in books, journals, newspapers and online. She has worked in universities, unions and community organisations. She is an honorary Research Associate in the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney.
