‘Sustainable Energy’ under Reformed International Investment Agreements

Energy supply and climate change are closely interconnected. Decarbonised energy is essential to achieving both the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Old-model international investment agreements, mostly signed before 2010, rarely addressed sustainable development. The urgency of the climate crisis has added complexity to the ongoing reform of the international treaty regime to ensure that existing and potential new international investment agreements are aligned as soon as possible with the goals of the Paris Agreement and enable the energy transition to net-zero emissions by 2050. Several pioneering agreements explicitly stress the importance of ‘the benefits of sustainable energy’ or the ‘importance of the use of renewable energy sources’. How do these recognitions translate into specific undertakings? The contribution will analyse selected provisions in international investment agreements and trade agreements with investment chapters that promote sustainable energy, the function of these provisions and to what extent these undertakings enhance investments in renewable energy.