THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — Lawyers for the British oil giant Shell told judges on Friday that a historic climate decision from earlier in the week supported their appeal of an earlier judgment that would force big cuts in the business' greenhouse gas emissions.
The energy company is appealing a 2021 ruling that found its current reduction plans were insufficient, in a case launched by a group of environmental and human rights organizations and backed by some 1,500 Dutch citizens.
On the last day of the appeals hearings, Shell’s lawyers told the three-judge panel that Tuesday’s decision from the European Court of Human Rights proves that climate change is an issue of state responsibility, not private companies. In that case, Europe’s top rights court faulted Switzerland for not acting aggressively enough against climate change, siding with a group of senior Swiss women.
“Issuing a demand for emissions reductions for companies is not up to courts,” Shell's lawyer Daan Lunsingh Scheurleer said of the ruling.
But lawyers for the activists who brought the original lawsuit disagreed. The decision “confirmed that climate change is a human rights issue," Milieudefensie lawyer Roger Cox argued. The Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth said that Shell is ignoring the earlier decision, citing the construction of more than a dozen new petrol projects slated for the coming years.
The original lawsuit demanded that Shell reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 45% by 2030 and eliminate them entirely by 2050. But the company claims it is doing enough to meet the targets of the 2015 Paris Climate Accords. That United Nations agreement, signed by 195 countries, aims to keep the increase in global temperature to below 2°C, or 3.6°F, by dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
"We too find that urgent action is needed to stop climate change," Shell Netherlands chief executive Frans Everts told reporters ahead of the start of hearings last week.
The case is the latest in a series of climate-related litigation. In 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court sided with another environmental action group, Urgenda, and ruled the Netherlands must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by the end of 2020. The court found that the country is obligated to protect its citizens from climate change under the convention.
Courts in Belgium and Germany have now made similar rulings.
The Hague-based court sided with Milieudefensie in another lawsuit in 2021 against Shell. That decision held Shell liable for oil leakages in the Niger Delta and obliged the company to compensate farmers whose livelihoods have been destroyed by pollution. Shell settled for 15 million euros ($15.9 million) in 2023.
Last year, 132 countries signed on to a request from the United Nations General Assembly seeking an advisory opinion from the United Nation's highest court, the International Court of Justice, on climate change. While not binding, such opinions carry substantial legal weight.
A ruling in the Dutch case is expected in the coming months.
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