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Stockholm Treaty Lab

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The Stockholm Treaty Lab Prize

Who can draft the international treaty with the greatest potential to encourage investment in climate change mitigation and adaptation?

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Global Exposure

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Summary

Overview

Ambitious targets for curbing global warming were laid out in the 2015 Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. Targets that, if they are to be met, will require investments amounting to trillions of dollars across the globe. Renewable energy must become even more affordable and available; energy-efficient transportation will be needed to carry an increasingly mobile world population; sustainable agriculture and forest restoration must substitute unsustainable land use and deforestation; and climate-resilient infrastructures must be built where global warming and rising sea levels already put communities at risk.

To some extent, the technologies necessary already exist – solar and wind power, energy-efficient vehicles, and carbon capture and storage – but enormous investments are needed to deploy these on a meaningful scale. In other areas, existing technologies fall short, and investments must be made in innovation and development. Such “green” investments present exciting and lucrative opportunities for investors.

Foreign investments tend to increase where they are protected by a stable and transparent legal framework, including a neutral and reliable enforcement mechanism. In the absence of such a framework, investors are often hesitant to deploy their funds. Yet no international legal instrument exists that specifically incentivizes and protects green investments. It is against this background that the SCC and its partners are launching the Stockholm Treaty Lab Prize  – an innovation prize that aims to address the “policy gap” between the objectives of the international climate change agreements, and the outcomes that those agreements envision.

The Stockholm Treaty Lab Prize will be awarded to the contestant team that drafts a forward-looking, innovative and workable model treaty that aims to encourage investment in climate change mitigation and adaptation. A treaty that, if implemented, would create transparent, stable and enforceable investment policy regimes. A treaty that has the potential to encourage investors to fund low-carbon projects, support technological innovation, and otherwise invest in a sustainable future.

Read more at the website here


Guidelines

Rules and Guidelines

Anyone can compete. We envision that the successful team will be multidisciplinary, and include lawyers, economists, scientists, and climate change experts. Participants must register their intent to participate in the competition no later than 30 October 2017, and submit their entries no later than 28 February 2018 CET (23:59).

Entries must be submitted in English and consist of three parts:

  1. The text of the Model Treaty.
  2. Argumentation demonstrating how the Model Treaty meets the Assessment Criteria. Maximum 25 single-spaced pages.
  3. A brief introduction of the contestant team.

Assessment Criteria

The Stockholm Treaty Lab Prize will be awarded to the contestant team that drafts the most forward-looking, innovative, and workable Model Treaty, with the highest potential to encourage foreign investment in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Submissions will be assessed based on how well they meet the following criteria:

 

  1. Compatibility (20 points). The Model Treaty is compatible with the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. It aims to facilitate states’ achievement of the climate-change objectives set out in those instruments. The Model Treaty is also compatible with fundamental principles of property law. 
  2. Efficacy (20 points). If adopted by states, the Model Treaty will lead to a significant increase in green investments related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. To this effect, the Model Treaty proposes incentives and protections that serve foreign investors’ needs and interests. The claimed efficacy of the proposed incentives and protections is supported by research and data.
  3. Viability (20 points). The Model Treaty is likely to be adopted by states around the world. Adoption is likely because the Model Treaty serves the states’ needs and interests, facilitates the achievement of climate-change goals, and does not unduly restrict the states’ ability to legislate and regulate.
  4. Universality (20 points). The Model Treaty appeals to the potentially diverging interests of states and investors in different parts of the world. Where necessary, the Model Treaty includes alternative provisions from which contracting states may select the most appropriate based on context and circumstances.
  5. Enforceability (20 points). The Model Treaty is binding and enforceable. It contains an effective dispute resolution mechanism, through which both investors and states can bring claims related to the Treaty. 

 

The review process will be blind—meaning that the submissions will be anonymized before being sent to the jury. In other words, while the Treaty Lab team will know who you are, the jury will not.

 

The Prize

The winning model treaty will be offered broad exposure, and an opportunity for the team to engage in this important question on a global level. So far, this will include the following opportunities:

Timeline
Updates8

Challenge Updates

Stockholm Treaty Lab celebration

March 19, 2019, 6:26 a.m. PDT by Stockholm Treaty Lab

Hello to all innovators of Stockholm Treaty Lab!

 

As you know the competition concluded in the summer of 2018, with the Creative Disrupters and Team Innovate as winners. 

 

But Stockholm Treaty Lab is not only about celebrating the winners, it is also about celebrating all the great ideas in the competition. 

 

We would like therefore to invite all of you to the celebration of Stockholm Treaty Lab in Stockholm on 16 May 2019. Please find the invitation on this link

 

Please know that we will not be able to cover your travel costs, however you are all welcome to attend the event free of charge.

 

Hope to see as many of you in the spring in Stockholm!

 

All best wishes,

Stockholm Treaty Lab team 

 

 


One week before the submission deadline!

Feb. 21, 2018, 12:20 a.m. PST by Stockholm Treaty Lab

Dear Treaty Lab participants,

With one week to go, we hope that you are all putting the finishing touches on your innovative model treaties. 

From our end, the Stockholm Treaty Lab team is excited at the prospect of receiving your submissions. It has been more than three years since we started thinking about how international law could promote green investments, and soon we will finally get to see what creative ideas are out there!

As you know, your submissions should contain three documents: (1) the text of the Model Treaty, (2) argumentation demonstrating how the Model Treaty meets the assessment criteria (max. 25 pages) and (3) a brief introduction of the contestant team. The documents should be submitted thorugh the HeroX page no later than February 28 (at 23.59 CET).

Let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to receiving -- and reading -- your submissions!

 

Good luck!

//the Stockholm Treaty Lab team


One month before the submission deadline!

Jan. 26, 2018, 12:48 a.m. PST by Stockholm Treaty Lab

Dear Stockholm Treaty Lab participants,

 

With one month to go before the February 28 (at 23.59 CET) submissions deadline, we hope that drafting is going well for all of you. As I am sure you know by now, your entries should contain three documents: (1) the text of the Model Treaty, (2) argumentation demonstrating how the Model Treaty meets the assessment criteria (max. 25 pages) and a brief introduction of the contestant team. No more and no less.

 

Who selects the winner?

The jury members, whose job it will be to review the submissions and select a winner, had their first meeting on January 9. They are:

  • David W. Rivkin is a Partner at Debevoise & Plimpton and the Immediate Past President of the International Bar Association (IBA).
  • Per Klevnäs is a Partner at Material Economics. He previously worked at the Stockholm Environment Institute and the New Climate Economy.
  • Michael Lazarus is the Director of the U.S Center of the Stockholm Environment Institute and an expert in energy and environmental analysis.
  • Mutchucumaraswamy Sornarajah is Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore and has authored several books on public international law.
  • Annette Magnusson is Secretary General of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce and the driving force behind the Stockholm Treaty Lab Prize.

 

A few words about the jury’s work

After the contestant teams submit their entries through the HeroX platform, the secretariat will review the submissions for completeness. To allow the jury to make a blind review, the names and affiliations of team members will be removed before the submissions are forwarded to the jury. Each jury member will evaluate all submissions against the assessment criteria and make a short list of five entries. In April, the jury will meet to select a winner from among the short-listed teams. We hope to announce the winner in May!

 

Promoting the Model Treaty from New York to Davos

The Treaty Lab team will work hard to ensure that the winning model treaty gets broad exposure and the attention of global stakeholders. This will include – but not be limited to – the following opportunities:

 

Good luck finalizing your submissions. We look forward to receiving them!

 

With great excitement,

the Stockholm Treaty Lab team

 


Model Treaty judging criteria reminder

Nov. 1, 2017, 1 p.m. PDT by Liz Treadwell

Greetings!

I'm sure everyone is working hard on their Model Treaty submissions, so I wanted to send along a reminder of what the judging criteria is. To maximize your points, your Model Treaty must effectively address each of these areas:

 

  • Compatibility (20 points). The Model Treaty is compatible with the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. It aims to facilitate states’ achievement of the climate-change objectives set out in those instruments. The Model Treaty is also compatible with fundamental principles of property law. 
  • Efficacy (20 points). If adopted by states, the Model Treaty will lead to a significant increase in green investments related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. To this effect, the Model Treaty proposes incentives and protections that serve foreign investors’ needs and interests. The claimed efficacy of the proposed incentives and protections is supported by research and data.
  • Viability (20 points). The Model Treaty is likely to be adopted by states around the world. Adoption is likely because the Model Treaty serves the states’ needs and interests, facilitates the achievement of climate-change goals, and does not unduly restrict the states’ ability to legislate and regulate.
  • Universality (20 points). The Model Treaty appeals to the potentially diverging interests of states and investors in different parts of the world. Where necessary, the Model Treaty includes alternative provisions from which contracting states may select the most appropriate based on context and circumstances.
  • Enforceability (20 points). The Model Treaty is binding and enforceable. It contains an effective dispute resolution mechanism, through which both investors and states can bring claims related to the Treaty.

If you need any clarification, you can email the HeroX team at gethelp@herox.com or post a new topic in the Forum.

 

Have a wonderful day!


How to form a team and additional prize details

Oct. 12, 2017, 3:30 p.m. PDT by Liz Treadwell

Hi everyone,

HeroX and the Stockholm Treaty Lab team wanted to send over a friendly reminder that the registration deadline is quickly coming up at the end of this month! Visit the Timeline tab here to get the exact date and time for your location.

Also, this intended to be a team collaboration challenge so we strongly encourage you to create a team, invite others to join it and submit your model treaty together. If you are unsure on how to form a team, there's a How To guide located here: https://herox.com/help/126-guide-how-to-form-a-herox-team. You can also look for people to join your team by posting in the Forum here.

  • Please note: you will not need to have all of your team members finalized by the registration deadline. You can continue to seek out additonal team members up until the submission deadline.

Lastly, the Stockholm Treaty Lab team has recently updated the Guidelines tab with some additional details regarding the prize. Here is that updated text: the winning team will be given the opportunity to present its model treaty at a United Nations General Assembly side event in 2018 (more information will be published soon).

If you have any questions, you can reach out to the HeroX team directly by emailing

 

Have a wonderful day!


Forum5
Teams327
Press
FAQ