Law Commons^™

International Investment Law And The Extractive Industries, Ella Merrill, Jesse Coleman, Lisa E. Sachs, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

As of April 2022, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) tallied 3,218 international investment treaties, of which 2,558 are in force. Investors in extractive industries (the oil, gas, and mining sectors) have used investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms embedded in these treaties to challenge a wide range of host state actions and inactions that have allegedly negatively affected their investments. Those claims, and the threats thereof, restrict states’ ability to maximize the benefits, and their ability to limit environmental and social harms, resulting from the exploitation of natural resources. This briefing note provides an introduction to international …

Allocation Of Climate-Related Risks In Investor–State Mining Contracts, Martin Dietrich Brauch, Perrine Toledano, Cody Aceveda

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Domestic laws and regulations are the ideal legal instrument to regulate the mining sector’s contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Even so, as a stop-gap-measure in the absence of a robust legal and regulatory framework, governments may consider updating model mining development agreements (MMDAs) or negotiating climate­-related contractual provisions.

The CCSI paper Five Years After the Adoption of the Paris Agreement, Are Climate Change Considerations Reflected in Mining Contracts?, published in July 2021, explores whether governments are using, and how they can use, investor–state mining contracts to advance climate goals.

This companion piece expands the analysis, by examining …