Abstract

This chapter addresses the future of Arctic investment and sustainable business development by investigating available hard laws (frameworks and agreements that support sustainable development) and soft laws, especially by focusing on the Arctic Investment Protocol. Arctic Investment Protocol (AIP) was introduced in 2015 by the Global Agenda Council on the Arctic organised by the World Economic Forum. The chapter reviews currently available hard laws applicable to foreign direct investments in the Arctic states (National Investment Laws and International Investment Agreements) and AIP. The data comes from publicly available sources such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) publications and the UN Conference on Trade and Development database and interviews with WEF and Arctic Economic Council. Results demonstrate that hard investment laws and international investment treaties in the Arctic states do not support three pillars of sustainability and corporate social responsibility, and the adaption of soft law mechanisms is slow. The results of the analysis led to recommendations for developing future sustainable investment framework for the Arctic.