Rethinking Investment Treaties Public Consultations

The report details the findings of a two-part survey conducted between June and September 2025 with over 60 respondents from academia, government, and civil society. The results indicate a shift in priorities away from traditional investment protection and toward managing the negative impacts of investment and maximizing positive spillovers. While treaties are seen as useful for dispute settlement and international cooperation, national laws are overwhelmingly viewed as the most appropriate tool for addressing sustainable investment and investor accountability. The report also explores technical aspects of treaty reform, including the potential for treaties to scale up renewable energy and the preference for non-adjudicatory compliance mechanisms.

• Respondents identified the most pressing policy problems of investment governance as the negative impacts of investment projects and lack of investor accountability, ensuring positive impacts of foreign investment, and issues related to attracting sustainable investment.
• Traditional investment treaty focuses, specifically investment protection and dispute settlement, were not ranked as the most pressing policy issues by the survey participants.
• National laws are viewed as the ideal tools for addressing the negative impacts of investment, ensuring positive impacts, attracting sustainable investment, and improving the regulatory environment.
• Treaties are considered the most ideal tools for managing investment dispute settlement and solving issues related to investment governance and international cooperation.
• There is a strong preference for reforming the current investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) regime, with suggestions including replacing it with state-to-state settlement, narrowing access, or using standing tribunals and mediation.
• Regarding sustainable investment, respondents suggested treaties could be used to impose investor obligations, strengthen national legal frameworks, and define what constitutes sustainable investment to avoid greenwashing.
• The most favored treaty compliance mechanisms are independent non-adjudicatory review mechanisms, self-assessment and reporting, and international courts or tribunals.
• To scale up renewable energy, respondents believe treaties should encourage cooperation between parties, multilateral development banks (MDBs), and the private sector, incentivize energy infrastructure investment, and address regulatory environments in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs).

APA

Ostřanský, J., & Manikantan, A. (2026). Rethinking Investment Treaties Public Consultations. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-03/rethinking-investment-treaties-public-consultations.pdf

Chicago

Ostřanský, Josef, and Abhishree Manikantan. Rethinking Investment Treaties Public Consultations. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2026. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-03/rethinking-investment-treaties-public-consultations.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ostřanský |first1=Josef |last2=Manikantan |first2=Abhishree |title=Rethinking Investment Treaties Public Consultations |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=March 2026 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-03/rethinking-investment-treaties-public-consultations.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ostansk2026rethinking, author = {Ostřanský, Josef and Manikantan, Abhishree}, title = {{Rethinking Investment Treaties Public Consultations}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2026}, month = mar, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-03/rethinking-investment-treaties-public-consultations.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }