International Investment Law and the Green Transition

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In recent years, the global community has become increasingly mobilized by a shared commitment to environmental sustainability. Efforts to combat climate change and halt the degradation of natural ecosystems have begun to influence both international and domestic regulatory frameworks. One area experiencing significant transformation is international investment law (IIL), which is currently undergoing complex reform. These changes are part of the broader green transition - a shift in industrial policy aimed at promoting cleaner, more energy-efficient, and low-carbon production methods.

Given that a substantial portion of global industrial activity is financed through international investments, the IIL framework plays a crucial role in enabling this transition. However, concerns have been raised by both the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), warning that the existing investment regime may be used to obstruct or delay progress toward sustainability. Other multilateral efforts to systemically incorporate climate change policies directly within the IIL regime have emerged, as illustrated by Track 1 of the OECD’s work entitled “Climate policies for investment treaties”. Some newer generation international investment agreements (IIAs) also attempt to highlight environmental concerns directly. These initiatives to "green" investment law represent an effort to overcome this tension and align IIL with the imperative to protect environmental public goods. Notably, the ongoing regulatory processes have also revealed limitations of such coordinated efforts, undertaken at the multilateral and plurilateral level: the investor-State dispute settlement reform, conducted by UNCITRAL Working Group III does not deal with environment and climate change at all; whereas the Energy Charter Treaty modernization largely failed to meet its parties’ expectations, prompting withdrawals. 

The conference ‘International Investment Law and the Green Transition’ gathers experts in international investment law, EU law and economics to address these phenomena and identify concrete ways forward. It concludes international research project ENERGIZE and presents outcomes of the studies on international investment law and plurilateralism in the context of the green transition, and on international investment law and environmental protection. The proceedings are conducted online.

 

9:35 - 9:45 Introduction and welcome remarks

Panel I

Journal of World Investment & Trade Special Issue (26:5) International Investment Law and Plurilateralism

9:45-11:15
  • Joanna Lam (University of Copenhagen) and Stefan Voigt (University of Hamburg), International Investment Law and Plurilateralism – Concept, Prospects and Limitations
  • Eleftheria Neframi (University of Luxembourg), The Member States of the European Union, Contracting Parties to the Energy Charter Treaty: Plurilateralism in the Light of EU Law
  • Luca Pantaleo (Università degli Studi di Cagliari), The EU's Withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty: between Treaty Law and International Responsibility Issues
  • Siri Silvereke (University of Copenhagen), Bridging the Gap between IIAs and the accommodation to a green transition with UNCITRAL's Draft Provision 12(3)
  • Fernando Dias Simões (Peking University School of Transnational Law), Commitments and expectations: what exactly has been promised to renewable energy investors?

Panel II

International Investment Law and Environmental Protection (CUP) I

11:30 - 12:45
  • Yuliya Chernykh (University of Inland Norway), Environmental Dissent: Toward a Complete Theory of ISDS’s Domestic Law Critique
  • Laura Létourneau Tremblay (University of Inland Norway), The Use of International Environmental Agreements in International Investment Law
  • Ursula Kriebaum (University of Vienna), Interpretation of Investment Treaties over Time
  • Aleksander Szostak (Eversheds Sutherland Poland), The Role of Counterclaims in Addressing Environmental Issues in Investment Treaty Arbitration

Panel III

International Investment Law and Environmental Protection (CUP) II

13:45 - 15:15
  • Paweł Marcisz (University of Warsaw), Effectiveness of Environmental Exceptions to Investment Protection in CETA after the Eco Oro Award
  • Ted Gleason (Grenoble Ecole de Management), Playing Defense – Reinforcing State Police Powers and the Right to Regulate for Environmental Protection
  • Maria Laura Marceddu (Edinburgh Centre for International and Global Law), Investment Arbitration and Climate Justice in the Paris Agreement Era
  • Arman Melikyan (University of Luxembourg) and Lena Hornkohl (University of Vienna), Is ISDS Unfriendly towards Friends of the Court? Amicus curiae Participation in Environmental Investment Disputes
  • Ömer Erkut Bulut (Boğaziçi University), Tariffs, Climate Commitments, and ISDS: The Case of Electric Vehicles
15:15 Concluding remarks

 

Conference partners

  • Study Hub for International Economic Law and Development (SHIELD), University of Copenhagen
  • Centre for Legal Studies in Welfare and Market (WELMA), University of Copenhagen
  • Luxembourg Centre for European Law, University of Luxembourg

Registration

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The conference is a closing event of the project ENERGIZE: Re-Shaping International Investment Law for the Green Transition, funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark.