📢 A just transition means phasing out fossil fuels and the ISDS system that protects them 📢
A new contribution from @kylat.bsky.social sets out why reform to the investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) system is essential for phase-outs.
sussex.ac.uk/research/pro...
Quick 🧵👇
Shame on Canada for presumably pushing this on Indonesia at the behest of mining firms.
🆕 stories show how old investment treaties still roll out the red carpet for investors to sue EU countries over sanctions against aggressive regimes, national security, climate laws, tax policies …
This secretive #ISDS system puts profits above democracy. Read more 👉 10isdsstories.org #StopISDS
Very important work, thank you for sharing. Helpful in dispelling the myth that we "need" ISDS to facilitate the energy transition - if we want a just transition, what we need is to get rid of ISDS!
From NACLA’s Green Capitalism in the Americas, we look at foreign investment in solar energy in Honduras that led to persecution of communities starting under the narcodictatorship and now $1,6 billion in claims over modest reforms. @tandfresearch.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/HFMVI...
🚨 BILLIONS lost to corporate lawsuits, not going to #ClimateAction.
Join us at our official #SB62 side event: how investment treaties block climate progress & drain public funds.
🗓️ Mon, Jun 16 | 15:00 CEST
📍 Berlin Room, World Conference Center, Bonn
#ISDS #ClimateJustice
More: bit.ly/4l75Qwx
With summer just around the corner, are you looking to indulge in some juicy, page-turning scholarship?
Today, the Blog highlights some of the hottest new forthcoming LPE and LPE-adjacent articles. 🔥🔥
Fossil fuel companies make money and block climate action by playing the victim. See this informative new study from CSSN scholars @kylat.bsky.social @fergusgreen.bsky.social on how companies leverage investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) to further their goals. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
The UK officially withdrew from the #ECT yesterday, but fossil fuel companies could still sue the gov for 20 years under its "sunset clause." New legal advice shows a way out with an inter se agreement to block future #ISDS claims.
tjm.org.uk/uk-can-act-t...
@globaljusticenow.bsky.social
BREAKING: @Ls4Ca released their 2025 Law Firm #Climate Change Scorecard. The legal
profession is complicit in climate destruction—and young lawyers are fighting back.
A thread with key take-aways & why its findings are so timely. 🧵
Read the report: bit.ly/2025Scorecard
To stop climate change & cut exposure to volatile energy markets, some Govs are phasing out oil & gas production. But what if investors sue?
Our brief sets out how to design phaseouts to minimize the risk of investment arbitration—in parallel to accelerating ISDS reform.
buff.ly/XHLD6fd
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And he will claim the process to decide whether he could build a shed was “unfair” and no on the panel will ask about how he tried to manipulate the outcome. And no one will discuss the dangers of sheds. And those most hurt by sheds will have no say…so yeah, great system you are defending!
So the man, who is not from this city and doesn’t think the local courts are good enough for him, goes to an arbitration panel and asks for many many times the amount that he spent trying to build a shed. And he gets to pick one of the arbitrators, so he can make sure it is someone who likes sheds.
Despite all this effort, he doesn’t get all the necessary permits and is caught up in multiple court cases. Then a new Mayor is elected who wants the city to move away from sheds for good and he revokes one of the many approvals needed to build the shed.
He nevertheless does everything he can to stack the decision making in his favour - he donates big money to city councillors and has his friends hired to review the costs and benefits of his shed. He pays for advertising to convince everyone that sheds are great and that the city needs more sheds!
A man wants to build a shed even though he knows that doing so threatens the future of all life on the planet and that he is taking a big risk because people don’t like sheds anymore and are looking for safer alternatives. There are even international agreements about stopping sheds!
We call this tactic feigned victimization. Fossil fuel companies can use this tactic to extract huge sums of money in arbitration.
We illustrate our argument through an empirical case study of TC Energy’s US$15 billion ISDS claim against the US in relation to the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
@fergusgreen.bsky.social and I argue that the asymmetric treatment of state and investor behaviour in #ISDS allows investors to depict themselves as innocent victims of “unfair” and “unforeseeable” “political” processes, despite being active political players and sophisticated risk managers
What is feigned victimization and how is it used by fossil fuel companies to achieve capital accumulation and climate obstruction?
Pleased to share this short policy brief "Ending the Era of Investor-State Dispute Settlement”, co-authored with Rachel Thrasher and Kevin P. Gallagher for the Think 7 (T7) process coordinated by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). #ISDS www.think7.org/publications...
In it, we argue that G7 countries should move beyond the current piecemeal approach to reform of the international investment regime and initiate the negotiation of a plurilateral agreement aimed at removing ISDS from international investment agreements.
That’s the plan at the moment!
3. How can minilaterals have an impact outside of their membership?
We are keen to involve scholars (including early career researchers) and practitioners (e.g., those working in groups like Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance).
If this is of interest to you, please reach out to me at kt71@queensu.ca
The questions we want to address are:
1. Once created, how can minilaterals be expanded in terms of both membership and level of ambition?
2. How can minilaterals overcome the challenges they face in terms of ensuring equity and fairness within their membership?
Call for papers: “Small Groups, Big Goals: Minilateralism in Action”
I am organizing a panel with @jfmorin.bsky.social for the 2025 Transformations Community/Earth System Governance Conference in South Africa next year: www.transformationscommunity.org/tcesg25-conf...
Excited to be moderating this virtual session on "Re-Imagining the University in an Era of Polycrisis". A great lineup of speakers including @jenniecstephens.bsky.social who will talk about her forthcoming book Climate Justice and the University. Free to register: 2024forum.earthsystemgovernance.org
finance nerds -- i'm maybe late to the party on this one, but check out www.globalisdstracker.org for awesome data and graphs on the ISDS. @kylat.bsky.social
Super helpful, thanks!
Thanks @timinclimate.bsky.social - still figuring this app out - what is GreenSky?
