Investor-State Dispute Settlement
Monday, October 10, 2022: This 41 minute podcast from the Conversation explains how an obscure investment provision in many trade agreements is being used by the fossil fuel sector to block action to cut carbon emissions.
September 30, 2022: an international arbitration panel appointed last week will hear the claim of TransCanada Corporation for $15 billion compensation against the US government because it revoked a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, claiming it would cause environmental damage. The pipeline is opposed by indigenous, farmer and other local communities because it aimed to transport to the U.S. Gulf Coast up to 830,000 barrels per day of highly corrosive crude oil extracted from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, across more than a thousand rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands across six U.S. states.
September 19, 2022: In 2017, the Colombian Constitutional Court decided in favour of local communities and to protect the Bruno River from an expansion of the huge Correjón open-pit thermal coal mine.
September 15, 2022: The first known Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) claim concerning COVID-19 pandemic-related regulation was registered by French airport operating companies ADP International and Vinci Airports in August 2021 against Chile. The companies are arguing that Chile’s decision to close its borders during the height of the pandemic cost them US$37 million.
September 8, 2022: Read Patricia Ranald's article in The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/british-investors-could-sue-australia-over-c...
August 25, 2022: The Guardian reports that the Italian government has been ordered by an international tribunal to pay EUR190 million plus interest, a likely total of EUR250 m, (A$360 m) to UK oil and gas company Rockhopper Explorations, because in 2015 Italy banned new oil and gas projects within 12 nautical miles of its coastline.
August 10, 2022: Patricia Ranald's article in The Guardian argues that the Labor government should resist threats from international energy companies to use special legal rights in some trade agreements to sue for billions if they take action to safeguard energy supplies or phase out fossil fuels. These rights enable companies sue the federal government if a change in law or policy reduces their profits, even if the change is in the public interest, known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS).
Labor's policy platform says no, but wil they implement it?.
August 5, 2022: An article in The Conversation with the catchy title ‘ Hey Minister, leave that gas trigger alone” has urged the government not to use the Turnbull government’s “gas trigger” to compel foreign-owned gas companies to keep gas reserves for use in Australia because they could sue the government for billions of dollars.
July 29, 2022: Investigate Europe reports that key EU governments still want to leave the Energy Charter Treaty because its rules, known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) permit fossil fuel companies to sue governments for billions if they decide to phase out fossil fuel use as part of the EU’s climate pledges.
June 27, 2022: After two years of negotiations, members of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) have arrived at an ‘Agreement in Principle’ which fails to end special protections for fossil fuel investments through Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanisms (ISDS).