AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Climate activist group Friends of the Earth Netherlands is taking its court case against oil major Shell to the Netherlands’ Supreme Court, as it continues to seek a specific carbon reduction target for the company and its products.
Shell in November won an appeal against a 2021 landmark ruling in the case that had required it to accelerate efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The appeals court said Shell did have a responsibility to reduce emissions to protect people from global warming, but said it could not determine a specific reduction target for the company.
Friends of the Earth, however, said it still saw “more than enough” options for a specific target.
“Judges have already confirmed that Shell is responsible for reducing emissions and to make its own contribution to the Paris Climate Agreement,” the group’s lawyer Roger Cox said.
“There is enough of a legal basis to make the ruling more specific and stronger.”
The original 2021 ruling had ordered Shell to cut its absolute carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels, including those caused by the use of its products.
But the appeals court agreed with Shell that an absolute order to reduce emissions from its products could have an adverse effect worldwide, as it could lead customers to switch from using Shell’s gas to more polluting coal.
Shell CEO Wael Sawan at the time said Shell believed the decision was “the right one for the global energy transition, the Netherlands and our company”.
The Supreme Court will not reconsider the facts and evidence presented to the lower courts but will judge whether procedures were correctly followed and if the ruling was properly motivated.
It can then either uphold or annul the ruling, after which the case could be reassigned to another court.
The ruling is expected in 2026.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer; editing by David Evans)
