Legal protections for British corporate investors are far tougher and more regularly enforced than laws to protect citizens from climate change or exploitation in supply chains, new research finds today.

The same research found that the majority of British investment treaties, despite the fact they cover polluting industries such as mining and fossil fuel extraction, contain no reference to climate change, the environment or human rights, undermining the UK’s climate commitments within the Paris Agreement and the Climate Change Act.

This means that UK companies continue to be free to sue countries which take action on climate if they threaten their current or future profits, as one British mining company is currently doing against Tanzania.

‘It can’t be right that British mining companies can sue developing countries for protecting their people and the environment. But that’s exactly what’s happening,’ said Charlotte Timson, CEO of Transform Trade, which published the People Centred Trade report today.

‘If our new PM wants to live up to her claim that Britain is an advocate for human rights and climate action around the world, and wants to promote freedom and prosperity, then she must ensure that our trade deals don’t sabotage our existing commitments.’

Whereas 66 corporate cases have been brought by British corporations against countries over the past ten years, only 17 human rights cases have been brought against corporations, the report found, and of these none have been successful. Only one climate-related case has been brought against a British corporation, and all the human rights and climate cases have been brought by individuals or civil society.

The People Centred Trade report identifies six key areas where the trading system needs to change: resource use, supply chains, rewards, human rights, women and ownership. It highlights best practice models and calls for an urgent rebalancing of power in trade through much tougher regulation, including a new Business, Human Rights and Environment Act, alongside action from businesses and consumers.

‘Regenerative and equitable business models are possible and already exist. But to spread these models we urgently need regulatory reform, as well as business and consumer action,’ said Timson.

The same report found that Britain is a global hub for extracting funds from countries for infringements of investment law, which often penalises countries for taking action to protect its citizens or on climate, as in the recent case of UK-headquartered Rockhopper winning $290m from Italy for banning offshore drilling.

The UK has more firms operating in the lucrative third party funding market (where specialised firms cover legal costs for corporations suing in return for a share of the award) than any other country in the world, the People Centred Trade report found.

‘In some cases, it’s British corporates which are driving some of the worst human rights abuses around the world,’ said Timson. A 2022 Business Human Rights Resource Centre report found that more than a third of all human rights defender killings globally were related to UK business activities.

UK trade is worth £1.4tn and emissions embedded in goods and services imported to the UK make up nearly half of the UK’s total carbon footprint.

‘The UK government urgently needs to get a grip and realise that climate and human rights are not ‘nice-to-haves’ but fundamental to securing our place in the world post Brexit and more importantly, a stable future,’ said Timson.

The same report found that one global south country, Colombia, was being sued by Anglo-Swiss company Glencore for an undisclosed sum after it declined an extension to a coal mine on environmental and social grounds.