The intersection of climate change and international investment law has become an increasingly pressing issue in ISDS, shaping both disputes and policy responses. In recent years, a growing number of disputes have emerged, challenging the balance between States’ regulatory autonomy to implement climate policies and investors’ treaty-based protections. Against this backdrop, the American Society of…
On 8 November 2024, the Roma Tre-UNIDROIT Centre for Transnational Commercial Law and International Arbitration held its first Annual Conference, titled ”The Many Shades of Climate Change: Through the Lenses of Dispute Settlement”, at the Bank of Italy’s ‘Carlo Azeglio Ciampi’ Convention Centre, Rome. The conference was co-organised by the Roma Tre-UNIDROIT Centre and the…
Greenwashing has become a key target of regulators and climate activists alike, as they bring claims against companies who now face fines, litigation and potential brand damage for misrepresenting the environmental benefits of their products, services and policies. Regulators across the world have launched campaigns against greenwashing. In the US, prior to its recent disbandment,…
The present post focuses on the latest European development on the modernization of the Energy Charter Treaty (“ECT”). It will do so by putting it in a broader geopolitical context and linking it to the fossil fuel-related investments carve-out, not originally envisaged in the EU proposal. It will then analyse carve-outs in investment treaties in…
On 6 June 2024, Hogan Lovells and Twenty Essex co-hosted a London International Disputes Week (“LIDW”) event on the topic “How Can Investment Protection Contribute to the Energy Transition?“. The event brought together leading experts to discuss the intersection of investment law and the global shift towards sustainable energy. The discussions were held under the…
Following our previous post on dispute resolution in carbon markets, the ICSID Tribunal in Koch Industries, Inc. and Koch Supply & Trading, LP v. Canada, ICSID Case No. ARB/20/52 (“Koch v. Canada”) recently dismissed the Claimants’ USD 31.3 million claims arising out of a cap-and-trade emissions programme on jurisdictional grounds. The Tribunal’s key findings included…
On 6 February 2024, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CiArb) European Branch/French Chapter held a seminar at the Paris office of Bird & Bird moderated by Jalal El Ahdab (Bird&Bird) and Alexandre Malan (Belot Malan & Associés) on a crucial topic: Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) issues and their impact on international arbitration. The panel discussion…
On 24 April 2024, the European Parliament voted for the EU to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty (“ECT”). Three days earlier, Ecuador had voted to keep the country’s constitutional ban on investor-state arbitration. These events mark the last chapters in the increasingly turbulent tale of investment treaties and investor-state arbitration. Over the past few…
The global fight against climate change demands a swift transition to cleaner energy sources. Underscoring this urgency, the 28th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (also known as the “Paris Agreement”) (“COP 28“), held in Dubai in November 2023, called for ambitious goals. At this conference, nearly 200…
On the 7th of March, Wolters Kluwer hosted a webinar to mark the launch of the book Investment Arbitration and Climate Change, edited by Anja Ipp and Annette Magnusson (co-founders of Climate Change Counsel) and published by Wolters Kluwer in January 2024. The webinar featured four of the book’s contributing authors: Caline Mouawad (Partner at…
In light of COP 28 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai last year, the Prime Minister of Samoa and Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), Honourable Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, observed: “Our islands are being pushed to the brink by the climate crisis and we need a strong plan of action for survival,…
Data-Related Disputes Nearly five billion people use social media. Last year saw the expansion of AI-based businesses, from search engines to data analytics to product development. Some of the most valuable data for AI-training sets includes photographs, names, birth dates, consumer preferences, and family histories that users have published online or otherwise made available. Companies…
2023 was another year of growth for arbitration in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It saw developments in investment arbitration and disputes relating to climate change, efforts to improve gender and cultural diversity, debate and guidance on the use of artificial intelligence, and pro-arbitration jurisprudence. We explore some of these key themes below….
At the Kluwer Arbitration Blog, December is the month to thank our readers and collaborators for their readership, contributions, and support. This is also one of the occasions in which we highlight and we praise our excellent editors. The Kluwer Arbitration Blog will celebrate 15 years of existence in 2024. On 28 January 2009, the…
The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”) held the SIAC Symposium, its flagship conference, during the Singapore Convention Week on 28 August 2023. The SIAC Symposium featured a conversation with Minister K Shanmugam, SC (Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law, Singapore) and a plenary address by Justice Judith Prakash (Justice of the Court of…
The shift from a carbon-intensive economic model to a net-zero economy by 2050 will result in an increasingly significant role for carbon markets. A proliferation of business activities in the carbon trading space will require seismic regulatory change across global jurisdictions. In this evolving landscape, common issues have begun to emerge including: the practical and…
The recently reported investment treaty claim by Singapore-based mining company Zeph Investments (“Zeph”) against Australia appears to be the latest in investor-State dispute claims arising out of climate change-related measures introduced by States. The claim was first disclosed on 10 July 2023 by the Attorney General’s Department of Australia in response to a question on…
On an exceptionally sunny day in Vancouver, Canada, Vancouver International Arbitration Centre (VanIAC) and International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) hosted a joint conference entitled “Energy Infrastructure Disputes and Arbitration: Today and Tomorrow”. The one-day conference kicked off with a traditional welcome by Wilson Williams (Sxwíxwtn) of the Squamish Nation on June 2, 2023. After…
During the first days of June, the scenic Canadian city of Vancouver hosted several events of interest to the arbitration community. The biggest of these was the June 2 joint conference organized by the Vancouver International Arbitration Centre (“VanIAC”) and the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (“ICCA”), which will be discussed in a separate blog…
The energy transition lies at the heart of climate change mitigation efforts. A new survey by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) in collaboration with Pinsent Masons, the Future of International Energy Arbitration Survey Report, (“the Energy Report” or “the 2022 QMUL Survey”) (see also here) offers guidance to anticipate and mitigate those risks for…
The Panel “The Future of Major Energy Projects Crises, Challenges, and Opportunities” took place on the penultimate day of the London International Disputes Week 2023 (“LIDW 2023”) on 18th May 2023 in the London office of McDermott Will & Emergy with panellist Armando Neris from McDermott Will & Emery, Lucian Ilie from Outer Temple Chambers,…
By the end of April 2023, observers of the ECT modernisation process may have felt as if they were waiting for Godot. The vote on the outcome of the ECT modernisation process, scheduled to take place at an ad hoc meeting of Energy Charter Conference at the end of April 2023, was postponed for the…
The defining challenge of the 21st century is undoubtedly climate change. There is consensus that we need to reduce the level of carbon emissions and abide by the scientific community’s directions to preserve our environment; we are beyond preventing harm – our current urgency is mitigation. We seem united in our common goal to meet…
The past year has seen a variety of exogenous impacts to global energy markets: from the sanctions flowing from Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, to the supply chain aftershocks of the COVID Pandemic, to hiccups in the commercial and government policy implementations of the global Energy Transition. International arbitration too has seen its share…
