Climate-friendly Reform of International Investment Agreements:Practices,Objectives and Paths
As the climate change problem worsens,international investment agreements(IIAs)have become an important instrument for cross-sectoral and multi-actor synergies in combating climate change.In recent years,with the aim to alleviate the contradictions and conflicts between traditional IIAs and the needs of global climate governance,countries have attempted to reform IIAs by enhancing the climate-friendly orientation of investment access,restricting the protected space for high-carbon investors,stipulating corporate social responsibility(CSR),and creating a favorable environment for climate-friendly investment in treaty practice.To genuinely advance the goals of global climate governance,the reform of IIAs needs to embody the concepts of a global community of shared future and sustainable development,balance the public and private interests between host countries and investors,and build a community of responsibility in which host countries,investors and their home countries participate in global climate governance in a synergistic manner.Based on the existing practices,countries should enhance the systemicity of climate-friendly reform of IIAs.Specifically,the climate element in the exception clauses should be reinforced on the basis of a clear definition of climate-friendly investment.The reform of IIAs could also be further promoted by strengthening investors'climate protection obligations,improving rules on climate-friendly investment incentives and investment facilitation,and reducing the impediments to host countries'implementation of climate measures posed by Investor-State Dispute Settlement(ISDS)mechanism to address challenges for global climate governance.
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