The world community has acknowledged that climate change represents an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies and the planet. At the UN Climate Conference in Pairs, 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change. The central objective of the Paris Agreement is to hold global average temperature increase to “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels”. However, this ambitious goal will require accelerated deployment of modern renewables and energy efficiency measures.
Although global investments in renewables have shown steady growth for more than a decade, they are not consistent with the goal of limiting global rise in temperature to less than 2°C set by the Paris Agreement (IEA, IRENA). Significant deployment of additional private investments is required. For instance, the International Energy Agency estimates that the implementation of the climate pledges in the Paris Agreement will require $13.5tn investments in energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies from 2015 to 2030.
In this context, international investment law can play a major role in the implementation of the Paris Agreement, since it provides investors with both substantive guarantees and investors-state dispute resolution mechanism. Predictable and stable regulatory framework as well as remedies against host states for a breach of rule of law are essential for swift deployment of renewables. This poster analyses the sources of international investment law, particularly bilateral investment treaties, investment chapters of free trade agreements (such as NAFTA, CETA) and regional treaties (such as the Energy Charter Treaty).
Against the backdrop of recent developments in international investment law (termination of intra-EU BITs, the Achmea judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union, renewable energy arbitrations under BITs and the ECT in Europe), the poster analyses the role of international investment law in the implementation of the Paris Agreement with a special focus on renewable energy investment.
