Climate Change and Investment Protection: Aligning Investment Treaties with the Paris Agreement
Fossil fuel firms are some of the most litigious in the investment treaty regime. Over 100 investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) claims pursued under investment treaties and seven of the top ten USD 1 billion-plus damages awards have involved fossil fuel interests. While renewable energy firms have also relied on investment treaties, concerns are growing that the treaties are unaligned with the Paris Agreement and net zero. Partially in response, a number of governments have begun to exit the so-called Energy Charter Treaty – including Denmark – but a global web of investment treaties with similar protections for high-carbon activities remain in place. This seminar will discuss this challenge and introduce OECD’s initiative on aligning investment treaties with climate objectives.
Speakers
Line Berg Madsen
Line is an expert in environmental, social and governance (ESG) regulation and the implementation of frameworks to support a climate neutral future. Line has 15 years of experience working with a wide range of institutional and public investors and some of Denmark’s largest companies. Her advice is now focused on solving important issues within ESG in a value-creating manner in close cooperation with her clients.
Lauge Poulsen
Lauge Poulsen is Professor of International Relations & Law at University College London and Chair of the OECD inter-governmental work programme on climate change policy and investment law. Prof Poulsen was adviser to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 2017 to 2020 and was appointed OBE (Officer of the British Empire) in the 2022 Queen’s New Year Honours List for services to UK trade policy. He has published widely on international economic law.
Asger Garnak
Asger Garnak is leading the international work on investment and finance mobilization at the Danish climate think tank CONCITO. In a range of public and private settings, he has been focusing on building partnerships with public and private actors that catalyze investments and make finance flow toward climate solutions, in particular in emerging and developing economies. From a background as an economist, he has worked within Government, a Multilateral Development Bank, consultancy and civil society. While working for the Danish Government, Asger co-developed the OECD’s Clean Energy Finance and Investment Mobilisation programme.
Alessandro Monti
Alessandro Monti is Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law. His main area of research is the interaction between climate change and international economic law, with a special focus on the energy transition. In 2023 he published his PhD-based monograph Promoting Renewable Energy: the Mutual Supportiveness of Climate and Trade Law, which was awarded the Herbert Tumpel Prize from the Theodor Körner Foundation. He regularly cooperates with public and private sector stakeholders on projects related to the clean energy transition and enhancing sustainability in trade and investment law.
The event program is available here.
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