On 24 November 2023, the Centre for International Law (CIL), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and University College London (UCL) jointly organised an in-person, closed-door, off-the-record meeting on investment treaties and climate change for ASEAN-Plus government officials in Singapore. This in-person meeting was a follow up to a virtual meeting held on 25 May 2023, which focused on the investment treaty regime, its impact on high-carbon and other investment incentives, and its interaction with policies designed to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Following an introductory presentation of the Paris Agreement and key recent climate developments, the in-person meeting proceeded to discussion of whether investment treaties can contribute to addressing climate change, and how to ensure that investment treaties do not hinder the achievement of climate goals.

The discussion was chaired by Professor N. Jansen Calamita, Head, Investment Law & Policy at CIL. Professor Lauge Poulsen, Chair of OECD inter-governmental work on Investment treaties and climate change and Professor of International Relations and Law, UCL, and Mr. David Gaukrodger, Senior Legal Adviser, OECD Investment Division, presented recent OECD work on climate policies for investment treaties. Professor Calamita delivered presentations on the role of investment facilitation agreements in promoting climate-friendly investments and typologies of treaty drafting to safeguard policy space for government climate action. Ms. Danielle Yeow, Head, Climate Change Law and Policy at CIL provided an overview of the shift in the corporate world towards mandatory Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure and alignment with the Paris Agreement. Dr. Elizabeth Sheargold, Senior Lecturer at Monash University, reviewed cases where exception clauses in newer investment treaties were insufficient to protect states’ policy space from arbitral scrutiny and, later, with  Dr. Joshua Paine, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Bristol, discussed their proposal for a climate change carve-out for investment treaties, involving, among other things, a specialised inter-state dispute settlement mechanism to address climate-change-related claims.

Government officials from Australia, Republic of Korea, Lao PDR, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam, and the ASEAN secretariat participated and provided extensive input about the issues, policy interests and ongoing debates. The participants exchanged views regarding the merits and drawbacks of differentiating between high-carbon and low-carbon investments in treaties’ scope, offering perspectives regarding the desire to avoid claims arising out of bona fide climate-related measures while, at the same, protecting their own outward investors. The meeting concluded with ideas about the scope of work that should be undertaken going forward and proposals currently being developed through the OECD process.