Kennedy Mbeva will talk on two panels co-organised by the Taskforce on Climate Governance at the 2024 ESG Forum on ‘Re-imagining Earth System Governance in an Era of Polycrisis’.
15th October, 12pm: Potent Threat? Investment Arbitration and Just Transition in the Global South
Reconciling the imperatives of meeting global climate goals while ensuring justice and sustainable development is one of the most significant global challenges. As the ongoing reforms of international investment treaties and investment arbitration aimed at aligning the global economic system with the authority of states to regulate in furtherance of, among others, environmental protection and climate goals have revealed, addressing concerns of justice is key to the success of the initiatives, especially in the global South. While much scholarly and policy attention has focused on the trade and international finance regimes, the international investment regime as it relates to the global south has largely been overlooked. This oversight could be costly as emerging scholarship is revealing how the substantial costs of arbitral claims could undermine development, and even threaten the very existence of states, especially those with limited fiscal and budgetary resources. Yet it is such countries that are usually the most vulnerable to investment treaty arbitral claims. It is against this backdrop that this innovative panel will explore the implications of investment treaty arbitration on the just transition in the global South. It will critically examine the implications of net zero targets, which almost all states have signed, on the prospects and implications of investment arbitration. The panel will analyse how policies and legislation aimed at achieving net zero targets might become subjects of treaty claims by foreign investors under the investor-state dispute settlement regime. In breaking new ground, this roundtable will also focus on the concept of the right to development as a way to (re)think about the nexus of investment arbitration and just transition. Speakers will examine conceptual, legal, theoretical, and empirical and policy aspects.
16th October, 7am: Just Transition and Sustainable Development in the Global South
Given the growing inequality and crisis of global governance, fairness and justice are becoming more important. At the same time, some scholars have suggested there has been a steady erosion of equity principles and norms in the global climate regime to the detriment of the poor and vulnerable countries in the global South. There is thus a need to explore the role of equity and fairness in the evolving climate regime complex and how best to integrate equity and fairness in global climate governance especially through the lens of the just transition. This panel seek to enhance understanding of the dynamics of just transition in the global South and analyse broader global governance reforms required to achieve just transition in the global South including the role of regional economic institutions.
