Session 2. Facilitating and encouraging climate-friendly investment

Mar 11, 2024 | 10:40 AM - 12:00 PM

Description

OECD work on investment treaties and climate change is considering whether and how investment treaties can facilitate and increase the climate-friendly investment that is essential for all countries to meet Paris Agreement commitments and goals. While most government investment policies routinely target particular types of investment and increasingly climate-friendly investment, work on investment facilitation agreements has not been targeted based on climate considerations. For example, the WTO Investment Facilitation for Development text does not mention climate change or the Paris Agreement. The EU-Angola Sustainable Investment Facilitation Agreement (SIFA) has a general reference to Paris compliance but otherwise applies generally to all covered foreign investment. There are important questions about how sustainable investment facilitation provisions in investment treaties can complement other treaty provisions in view of Paris alignment, whether they can go further by including or strengthening climate considerations, and importantly how they can be implemented in domestic law and practice. This session will address these issues, building on recent discussions at the OECD on investment facilitation developments at the WTO and in investment treaties.