Investment Arbitration and Climate Change

At the nexus between international investment law, climate law, and human rights law, States’ obligations to protect foreign investments clash with their right – or even their duty – to regulate to protect the planet and people. State efforts at climate change mitigation and adaptation have already triggered claims of liability under the investor-protection provisions of bilateral and multilateral investment treaties. In this comprehensive elaboration on the topic, stellar experts and practitioners describe different types of climate-related investment disputes, provide a thorough analysis of the unique procedural issues that emerge in such disputes, and evaluate the proper balance between States’ right to regulate to fight climate change and their obligations towards foreign investors.

Each of the book’s contributions offers a penetrating perspective on this complex matter, touching on such aspects as the following:

• investment disputes arising from States’ climate measures or actions;

• whether and how states can file counterclaims against investors in such disputes;

• the appropriate role for climate science at various stages of arbitration; 

•  how to assess damages in cases involving fossil assets left stranded by the climate transition; and

• whether, on balance, existing international investment law supports or hinders the global energy transition.

Along the way, arbitrators and other practitioners will gain insight into how to argue, defend, and assess climate-related investment disputes, using not only investment-treaty case law but also international climate agreements, human rights law, and environmental law. Policymakers are shown ways to design and implement climate policy and investment treaties in order to avoid claims by foreign investors.

For policymakers, treaty and contract negotiators, dispute resolution lawyers, and international organizations, no other resource provides such incisive discussion of how to balance treaty-based investment protection against states’ inherent duty to regulate in the public interest.