Taking Stock of the Scholarship on the Relationship between International Investment Law and the Need for Raised Climate Ambition

Abstract

Increasingly dire warnings about the climate crisis mean that it is more urgent than ever that different legal regimes, including international investment law, are aligned with climate objectives and not implemented in discord with climate solutions. Many works have been produced over the last twenty years which examine whether the norms underlying climate law and international investment law necessarily conflict or can be reconciled. These works reflect deeply contested views amongst scholars as to whether regulation aimed at ensuring climate ambition can, or is likely to, be adequately safeguarded by the international investment law regime that is designed to provide conditions of stability for investors – including those that are large greenhouse gas emitters. This article provides an overview of the different perspectives that have been offered on the relationship between climate change law and international investment law in respect of three role-players – namely, arbitrators, civil society, and states. It concludes by offering tentative thoughts on the course that the interaction between the two regimes may take in the future.