Investor-State Dispute Settlement Mechanisms and the Right To a Clean, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment

Effectively addressing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss requires swift, global, and coordinated changes across our societies, encompassing deep and systemic transformations.

Yet conflicting laws and approaches among the various national and international institutions and regulatory authorities pose significant challenges to achieving this objective. The incompatibility of the international investment law (IIL) regime, including its enforcement mechanism, investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), with national and international environmental measures and goals has become increasingly apparent and recognized in recent years.

It is evident that the IIL regime needs to be aligned with international human rights law, international climate change law, and other relevant international obligations to effectively address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.

In light of these circumstances, CCSI prepared a submission to draw attention to the resources we have published that elaborate on the questions posted to inform the Special Rapporteur’s report on “Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.”