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June 2019 Newsletter
Dear Colleagues,
The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) is pleased to update you on several events, recent publications and projects at the Center. Please check our website for more information about these and other activities.
Announcements
Publications
Upcoming Events
Past Events
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Primer: International Investment Treaties and Investor-State Dispute Settlement
CCSI has prepared a background primer on international investment treaties and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). The primer answers a number of basic questions on investment treaties and ISDS, including why states sign investment treaties, what privileges these treaties provide to investors, how provisions can affect states’ abilities to govern, and what lies ahead in investment treaty reform efforts and negotiations.
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New Tech, New Deal: Join the Conversation
Do you see new technologies and disruptive innovations reshaping the competitive dynamics in the mining sector? Will they fundamentally change the relationship between mining companies and their host communities and host countries? Join the conversation and share your views on how governments, companies and communities can adapt to the speed and scope of mining industry changes. Last week’s talk, featuring CCSI’s Nicolas Maennling and Wendy Tyrell, was called Addressing the Potential Losses: What Community Economic Development Policies Can Make a Difference? This week, CCSI’s Perrine Toledano and Antoine Heuty finish the series with a discussion on the importance of sound community engagement processes in the context of technological transition.
This conversation is hosted by CCSI, the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF), Mining Shared Vision (MSV), and GOXI.
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Do Companies Have Personalities and Why Does It Matter?
CCSI has launched an interview series with senior experts on “company personality” and resource negotiations, focused on how company personalities inform negotiation strategies, prioritization of different contractual provisions, and the relationship between company and host government more generally. These personalities may be influenced by company nationality, culture, history, home country priorities, activity type, and/or the project stage. The series intends to shed light on company particularities and how governments can tailor their own negotiation strategies accordingly.
The fourth interview of the series is with Salli Swartz, Partner at Artus Wise.
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CCSI Submits Written Views to US Department of State Regarding UNCITRAL’s Working Group III
CCSI’s comments (available here) highlight specific spheres of CCSI’s research as they relate to the US Government and its work within the Working Group. We focus on the ways in which greater procedural rights afforded under investment treaties to foreign investors in practice result in greater substantive rights, as expressed through three distinct issues: (1) third-party funding, (2) the rights and interests of non-parties to disputes, and (3) settlement of ISDS disputes. UNCITRAL’s Working Group III, which is focused on procedural reforms to ISDS, provides an opportunity to address and reform rules in these three areas to better align with US treaty objectives.
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New Civil Society Briefing: How Access to Land Contracts Can Serve Community Rights
Land contracts (also known as investor-state contracts or concession agreements) record the commitments a forestry, farming or renewable energy company has made to the public and outline what the government has allowed said company to do with the land. The scope of these agreements determines whether the company’s project will help or hurt community members’ livelihoods and human rights, as well as the surrounding environment. Accordingly, this briefing note explains how local organizations can use land contracts and OpenLandContracts.org to help advance and protect the rights of local communities. A French version of the briefing will launch soon!
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Mapping the Renewable Energy Sector to the Sustainable Development Goals: An Atlas
Given the urgency and scale at which renewables must be deployed to meet the world’s sustainable development and climate goals, it is critical that renewable energy companies understand their potential impacts—both positive and negative—on economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable development. For that reason, CCSI, along with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Equitable Origin, and the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, has published “Mapping the Renewable Energy Sector to the Sustainable Development Goals: An Atlas.” The new report explores how renewable energy companies can strengthen their contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and respect human rights. In doing so, companies can also minimize risk and build support for a sustainable transition to a low-carbon economy.
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Review of Competitive Bidding Frameworks for Mineral Rights
Over the past decade, there has been a trend toward the inclusion of competitive bidding provisions for mineral rights allocation into national laws. This study surveys the laws of 29 mineral rich countries to provide an overview of competitive bidding laws in mining.
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Upcoming Events
June 17, 2019: Global EITI Conference in Paris
Extractive sectors can generate substantial revenues – but how do we measure, report and utilize information on environmental and social impacts to ensure good governance of natural resources?
At the EITI Global Conference in Paris, on Monday, June 17 at 1pm, CCSI, in collaboration with NRGI and Mining Shared Vision (MSV), invite you to join a session exploring whether more integrated modelling and measurement of environmental and social impacts, alongside fiscal impacts, can improve policymaking in the extractive sector. Participants will share experiences working on this issue to date, and collectively determine if and how to further our work and ensure relevance with policymaking. If you are interested to join, please email Perrine at ptoled@law.columbia.edu.
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September 27, 2019: The Climate Crisis, Global Land Use, and Human Rights.
The climate crisis threatens to dramatically alter people’s relationships with the land on which they rely. Meanwhile, many energy-related climate solutions are themselves land-intensive, including renewable energies like solar and wind, threatening to increase competition for community and arable land. This conference will analyze the critical role that land plays in achieving climate solutions, the degree to which climate change may impact land’s ability to provide a sustainable ecosystem, and the ways in which these land and climate interactions might affect land rights, human rights, and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Registration is available on our website.
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Past Events
May 23, 2019: A Multilateral Framework on Investment Facilitation
CCSI’s Karl P. Sauvant recently moderated a web-panel organized by the German Development Institute, based in Bonn, Germany. In light of recent deliberations in the WTO, the webinar dealt with the following questions: What would be the impact of a multilateral framework on the policy space of countries? What value would it add to bilateral and national investment facilitation efforts? What should such a framework contain to promote sustainable FDI? What are the specific needs of, and benefits for, developing countries? Where do we go from here? The event was recorded.
May 20-23, 2019: Linkages to the Colombian Mining Sector Workshops
CCSI is preparing a policy brief about the existing economic linkages between the Colombian mining sector and the rest of the economy. The analysis reviews existing policies, regulations and programs by the government and mining companies that support linkage creation, and proposes potential future opportunities. CCSI’s Nicolas Maennling was in Bogota and led four workshops to gather inputs for the policy brief - one with relevant government institutions, one with the private sector representatives, one with a multi-stakeholder group focused on the mining dialogue in the country, and one with academia. The inputs from these meetings will feed into the policy brief, which will be finalized in the coming months.
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