Investors awarded billions of dollars for losses related to climate laws, analysis finds

Fossil fuel firms are biggest beneficiaries of investor-state dispute settlement courts which have awarded $114bn of public money

More than $100bn of public money has been awarded to private investors in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) courts, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet.

The controversial arbitration system which allows corporations to sue governments for compensation over decisions they argue affect their profits is largely carried out behind closed doors, with some judgments kept secret. But, according to a global ISDS tracker which launches today, $114bn has so far been paid out of the public purse to investors - about as much as rich nations provided in climate aid in 2022.

A $15bn compensation suit by TC Energy against the US government for cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline which would have carried 830,000 barrels of highly polluting tar sands oil to the US coast every day. The permit was withdrawn by Joe Biden on his first day in office after a long campaign by Indigenous Americans, farmers and climate activists. The pipeline had been championed by ex-president Donald Trump and became a touchstone culture war issue.

Ruby River Capital's claim for no less than $20bn" after the Quebec government cancelled a natural gas liquefaction plant on the St Lawrence River. An environmental impact assessment had found that the plant would increase greenhouse gas emissions, hurt Indigenous Canadian communities and destroy biodiversity. RRC's claim was the largest ever under the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).

The most lucrative ISDS claim currently being heard is Zeph Investment's $200bn case against Australia over a huge planned mine in Western Australia which, Zeph Investment claims, the Australian government had effectively destroyed", in breach of the Asean free trade agreement.

Avima Iron Ore is seeking $27bn from the Republic of the Congo, after it revoked iron ore mining licenses for three Australian-owned firms, handing them instead to a small Chinese investment group. The sum is almost twice as much as the country's GDP last year.