Investment, Environment and Development

The document examines the prospect of the WTO launching comprehensive negotiations on a multilateral investment agreement following the Doha Ministerial Declaration. It highlights the failure of previous attempts, such as the OECD's Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), which were abandoned due to environmental concerns and a focus on investor rights over host-state obligations. The author argues that existing bilateral investment treaties have not demonstrably increased investment flows to developing countries and suggests that future agreements should foster the domestic institutional capacity of host nations to manage investment in the public interest.

• The WTO's Doha Ministerial Declaration created a possibility for multilateral investment negotiations to be launched at the September 2003 Ministerial meeting, potentially making investment agreement a prerequisite for other agenda items under the 'single undertaking'.
• Previous efforts to create a multilateral investment framework, specifically the OECD's Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), failed after France withdrew, largely due to public unease over environmental concerns and the protection of cultural institutions.
• There is a lack of empirical evidence that bilateral investment treaties have successfully increased investment flows to developing countries or promoted the efficient use of capital.
• To support sustainable development, international investment agreements should move beyond focusing solely on investor rights and instead help developing countries build the institutional capacity to regulate projects in the public interest.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (2003). Investment, Environment and Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/investment_sdc_may_2003_6.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Investment, Environment and Development. 2003. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/investment_sdc_may_2003_6.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Investment, Environment and Development |date=2003 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/investment_sdc_may_2003_6.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopment2003investment, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Investment, Environment and Development}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2003}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/investment_sdc_may_2003_6.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }