Fossil Fuel Giants Have Sued States for Over $443 Billion Under Trade Deals

Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a quick donation . Ahead of an official side event at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Antalya, Türkiye, campaigners on Thursday released an analysis of UN data regarding secretive deals within trade agreements aimed at protecting the profits of corporations, including fossil fuel giants, which have now claimed at least $443 billion from the legal provisions.

Investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS), which allow corporations to sue governments over their investments and profit losses as the result of laws and regulations, have increasingly been used by the fossil fuel industry as countries have started taking action to regulate planet-heating oil and gas emissions, according to data from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The data was analyzed by the British campaign group Global Justice Now and the German research organization PowerShift, which found that based on 987 publicly disclosed ISDS cases, corporate investors have demanded a total of $1.177 trillion up to 2025.

That represents a 37.5% increase, or $321 billion more, from the amount investors were attempting to claim at the end of 2023. $1.177 trillion is nearly equivalent to the total global climate finance needs , including mitigation costs, for 2021-22, said the campaigners. Related Story Op-Ed | Environment & Health New Documents Expose Exxon’s Attempt to Suppress Damning Climate Evidence A paper from 1992 shows the oil company anticipating how the melting of Arctic ice sheets could impact its bottom line.

By Aaron Regunberg & David Arkush , T ruthout October 16, 2026 The total compensation demanded by fossil fuel investors, $443.8 billion, “is equivalent to the estimated minimum amount of economic losses developing countries will face due to climate change in 2030,” said Global Justice Now and PowerShift. In fossil fuel cases, the amount demanded rose by $80 billion, or 22%, compared to 2023. Fabian Flues, investment policy lead at PowerShift, pointed out that by “weaponizing” ISDS, fossil fuel giants are siphoning “money from public budgets that are already stretched,” and Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, compared the ISDS payouts to “the owners of enslaved people being compensated for their grotesque harms following abolition in the early 19th century.”

“We know fossil fuel corporations are making a fortune out of global crises, hitting ordinary people hard,” said Dearden. “But they are also using obscure international agreements to bully governments out of responding and drain money from the public sector. It’s obscene that the very corporations which have created the climate crisis are demanding eye-watering payouts when governments take much needed climate action.” This week, US company ExxonMobil launched a legal challenge to the European Union’s Net Zero Industry Act, under which the company is required to pay for carbon storage.

The law would saddle Exxon with “unrealistic timelines,” the company said in a statement. A UK-based mining company and its Singapore-based majority shareholder also sued the UK government last year for £300 million ($398 million) after officials blocked their “unviable” coal mine planned for Cumbria. “This legal challenge is a last, desperate attempt by investors to make some money out of a project which belonged in the last century,” Niall Toru, a senior lawyer at Friends of the Earth , told Land and Climate Review in May.

According to Global Justice Now and PowerShift, the total amount of compensation awarded to corporate investors through ISDS cases reached $123 billion last year, with fossil fuel investors receiving “the lion’s share of $85.9 billion, representing almost 70% of all payouts to investors.” $123 billion is “equivalent to the entire bilateral development aid given by [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] countries in 2025,” said the campaigners.

The groups are among those calling on leaders at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) to agree to a coordinated phase-out of ISDS. Next Monday, Global Justice Now and the Netherlands-based group Both ENDS are organizing an official side event in Antalya featuring Vanuatu Climate Minister Ralph Regenvanu, representatives from communities at the center of ISDS disputes, and a senior government official from Australia, which announced a new policy in 2022 of excluding ISDS mechanisms from future trade deals.

“Governments need to stop this heist and cancel the international agreements that enable fossil fuel investors to sue over climate policies,” said Flues. “Countries like Australia, South Africa , and Indonesia have taken significant steps to free themselves from ISDS, and others should follow suit.” An important fundraising appeal: 7 Days to raise $44,000 Donations are down for Truthout at a time when media is under immense pressure. Google’s AI search has driven our traffic down by 15 percent, Trump is arresting journalists, and many independent media organizations face heartbreaking cutbacks and closures.

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It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source. Julia Conley Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams .