The Shell Eguatu oil terminal, Warri-Sud, Nigeria.
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PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP
Accusing the oil giant of not doing enough to align with the Paris Agreement, a collective of environmental NGOs, which filed a petition to try to force Shell to reduce its CO2 emissions, was heard by the courts Dutch this Tuesday.
Launched in April 2019 by Milieudefensie - branch in the Netherlands of the international organization Friends of the Earth - the case is unique in its kind according to its initiators, who are pleased that more than 17,300 Dutch citizens have been formed civil party.
Responsible for more than half of emissions in recent years
Along with six other environmental and development aid NGOs, including Greenpeace and ActionAid in the Netherlands, Milieudefensie denounces a "destruction of the climate" on the part of Shell, one of the largest oil companies in the world.
“Royal Dutch Shell's corporate policy is on a collision course with the global climate goal,” NGO lawyer Roger Cox said Tuesday at a court hearing in The Hague.
The company "thus contributes to the realization of a great danger for humanity, human rights, future generations, the environment and nature", added Roger Cox.
“The Shell group is the eleventh largest industrial polluter in the world in terms of CO2 emissions.
The company is part of a group of 25 multinationals that have caused more than half of global industrial greenhouse gas emissions over the past thirty years, ”he said.
No "legal basis"
The lawyer representing Shell, Dennis Horeman, for his part retorted that the company "was already taking serious measures that support the energy transition", adding that this process is a "political decision-making".
“The point is that there is no legal basis for Milieudefensie's claims either.
There is no legal rule that makes Shell's CO2 emissions illegal in the current situation, ”said Horeman.
The court in The Hague is holding four days of hearing from Tuesday, spread out until mid-December.
The NGOs expect a verdict next summer.
Milieudefensie believes that it is impossible to respect the Paris Agreement without "big polluters like Shell" being legally forced to take measures in this direction.
The NGOs are therefore asking the Dutch courts to order Shell to reduce its CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030, "in accordance with the objectives agreed in the Paris Climate Agreement".
The Anglo-Dutch multinational currently plans to lower the “net carbon footprint” of products sold to its customers by 30% by 2035, and 65% by 2050.
A "disastrous" change
"Today, we ask the judge to force Shell to stop contributing to dangerous and disastrous climate change," responded Donald Pols, director of Milieudefensie, in court.
"Shell's main argument is that everyone is responsible: the consumer, the state, the international community, everyone is responsible except Shell, except the biggest polluter in the Netherlands," he said. denounced.
Since the Paris Agreement signed in 2015, which aims to contain the rise in temperatures below 2 degrees, many manufacturers have committed to reducing their CO2 emissions, with Shell promising, for example, carbon neutrality by 2050.
Despite these commitments, the group spends only 3 to 5% of its investments in renewable energies, according to a report published in July.
In a landmark case brought by the environmental organization Urgenda, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands last year ordered the state to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% by the end of 2020 , creating according to Milieudefensie a precedent for its action.
The Netherlands, particularly vulnerable to the consequences of climate change as part of the country is below sea level, has pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 49% by 2030.
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