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Hi John,
The UK is being sued for halting a coal mine in a shadowy corporate court – it’s a perfect illustration of why this system is seen as the fossil fuel industry’s secret weapon.

But it’s also an opportunity to convince our government to finally act, by scrapping ISDS (investor-state dispute settlement) from its trade deals once and for all.

Thousands of us have already signed our petition for the UK to scrap corporate courts. Can you add your name now?

The Labour party has committed, rightly, to ban new coal mining projects. But without also tackling corporate courts, it has given free rein to investors in an unrealised and unlawful coal mine to put public finances at stake – in a highly secretive and undemocratic claim, represented by none other than a sitting Conservative MP.(1)

UK ministers must now face up to this direct threat to their own climate policies – and public pressure is key to getting them. Can you sign the petition for the UK to call time on corporate courts?
Sign the petition against corporate courts ([link removed])
More than $80 billion has been awarded to the fossil fuel industry in recent decades through claims made in corporate courts.(2) With increasing pressure on public finances, and the UK government committed to net zero in the face of opposition parties abandoning it, it’s a massive risk to leave climate policies at the mercy of these shadowy tribunals, which fly in the face of democracy.

We also know that all the while corporate courts lurk in our trade deals, UK companies are rampantly wielding them against governments around the world acting to prevent corporate abuses.

But as the system has come back to bite Britain, we must use this moment to stress it is in no one’s interest to allow costly challenges to rational climate rulings, and the UK public should not be shouldering the losses of dirty, obsolete projects.

In the Cumbria mine case, the sulphur content of the coal meant it could not have been used domestically – despite the touting of energy security benefits – and the company didn’t even have a lease on the proposed site. They didn't appeal the High Court’s ruling, and abandoned their project – but even with such weak skin in the game, they can still use this bespoke legal system to demand a pay-out.

Can you call on the government to act on this grave threat to climate action?
Tell the UK to scrap ISDS ([link removed])
The dangers we anticipated to our climate action are unfolding before us – but this can be a tipping point for the movement against ISDS in the UK. Thanks for being with us each step of the way.

In solidarity,
Cleodie Rickard,
Trade campaigner at Global Justice Now

Notes
1. UK taxpayers on hook as failed Cumbria coalmine investors sue government ([link removed]) , Guardian, 11 August 2025; Geoffrey Cox made £800,000 at law firm that helps rich companies sue poor states ([link removed]) , Open Democracy, 10 November 2021
2. Why fear of billion-dollar lawsuits stops countries passing green laws ([link removed]) , Guardian, 6 March 2025
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