Treaty on Sustainable Investment for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

The Treaty on Sustainable Investment for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation was one of the 2018 winners of the Stockholm Treaty Lab prize, awarded to two submissions that year for work that involved “unique approaches to the challenge.”

Prepared by an IISD-led team with backgrounds ranging from international investment law to economics and energy policy, the treaty sets out a legal framework aimed at fostering climate-friendly, resilient investments while disincentivizing unsustainable investments, along with enabling a just transition. The work was motivated by the UN’s Paris Agreement on climate change and informed by the lessons learned from extensive research, advisory work, and engagement on the current international investment regime and its impacts on climate action.

Known as the “Creative Disrupters,” this team was invited to present their work at numerous forums around the world after winning the prize.

The treaty text is available in full on the Stockholm Treaty Lab site, as are supporting documents explaining the model treaty’s relationship to the prize assessment criteria.

In the years since the treaty won the prize, it has drawn the attention of academics and policy professionals alike for its potential to incentive investment in low-carbon technologies and correct some of the current deficiencies in the international investment regime. Members of the Creative Disrupters have published on their work in the SDG Knowledge Hub and in a special edition of The Journal of International Arbitration, as part of their outreach and engagement with a wide range of stakeholders from policy and law.

The June 2020 edition of Investment Treaty News also featured in-depth legal analysis on how the treaty could be used to foster low-carbon investment and where it can be improved.