Key Message

Without investment, sustainable development is impossible. Well planned, high quality foreign investment in developed and developing countries can help make current economic practices more sustainable. Inappropriate investment, however, can undermine communities and the environment, as well as domestic development strategies. IISD examines how the rules and institutions that govern international investment flows can be improved so as to help developing countries, in particular, attract the sort of investment that promotes sustainable development.

Video


Mark Halle sees investment as critical to addressing sustainable development. (Flash Video - 1:47 min)

Team


Mark Halle· Mark Halle
Vice-President, International
Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder· Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder
Program Leader and Senior International Lawyer
Flavia Thomé· Flavia Thomé
Project Manager
Howard Mann· Howard Mann
Associate & Senior International Law Advisor
Aaron Cosbey· Aaron Cosbey
Associate and Senior Climate Change and Trade Advisor
Oshani Perera· Oshani Perera
Program Leader
Damon Vis-Dunbar· Damon Vis-Dunbar
Network and Communications Coordinator
Elka Parveva-Kern· Elka Parveva-Kern
Project Assistant
Alec Crawford· Alec Crawford
Associate
Tilmann Liebert· Tilmann Liebert
Project Officer
Simon Zadek· Simon Zadek
Senior Fellow and Associate

Investment and Sustainable Development

A global agenda for change in international investment law, policy and institutions

What's New in Investment and Sustainable Development?

  • Two workshops relating to China's outward investment are taking place in Beijing: 24-25 April 2013

    • Sustaining Mining Investments in the Evolving Context of Sustainable Development: The Legal Perspective

    • International Investment Law Workshop

  • Chinese Outward Investment: An emerging policy frameworkChinese Outward Investment: An emerging policy framework
    This book is an English-language compilation covering over 80 primary texts relevant to Chinese outward investment issued from January 2000 to January 2012. By combining these primary materials into one comprehensive and accessible English-language source, IISD and Institute for International Economic Research are filling a gap in the available literature. The compilation makes these primary sources easy to access and understand, which will facilitate a broader and deeper understanding of Chinese outward investment and the policies supporting it, and, importantly, will facilitate more and improved discourse on and analysis of the relationship between Chinese outward investment and sustainable development.







IISD has been breaking new ground on investment and sustainable development issues since 1998.

Investment is critical for sustainable development, which requires fundamental changes in how we produce, distribute and dispose of goods. Today this kind of change must come mainly through investment in new technologies and new processes that can replace unsustainable practices. In developing countries, where domestic sources of capital are scarce, foreign direct investment plays a significant role.

But not all investment leads to sustainable development, and not all of the global rules and institutions relating to international investment have been conceived through a sustainable development lens. IISD's work on investment and sustainable development focuses on this critical linkage, and provides new approaches to ensure that investment law and policy will make a positive contribution to sustainable development.

Contents

[1] Chevron Corp. & Texaco Petroleum Co. v. Republic of Ecuador, PCA Case No. 2009-23.