Shell Oil Ordered to Cut Emissions 45%

[This is a “backfill” post, created after we actually launched. But it still counts!]

Shell has been ordered by a judge to cut its CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030.

A court in the Neatherlands, Shell’s primary place of business, has ordered the fossil fuel giant to cut its scope 1, 2, AND 3 emissions by 45% by the year 2030.

Given that this ruling includes the company’s scope 3 emissions, it’s a huge deal. Roughly speaking, emissions scopes are defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and lay out like:

1. Scope 1: Emissions directly emitted by the company while making stuff
2. Scope 2: Emissions directly emitted by the company's suppliers to make the materials and energy the company uses to make stuff
3. Scope 3: Emissions indirectly emitted as a consequence of the company making stuff and then selling it

For a fossil fuel company, scope 3 emissions are…the carbon load of buring the fossil fuel they refine and sell. This. Is. Huge.

There is one rub, though: the court ruled that they only have jusisdiction over Shell in the Neatherlands itself. So, we’re only talking about emission in the Neatherlands itself, and not globally all over the place. But, hey, we’ll take a victory when we get one.

The lawsuit was filed by the environmental organisation Milieudefensie voor Veranderaars (Friends of the Earth Netherlands), alongside other major charities and thousands of co-plaintiffs.

You can find the text of the judgement itself thanks to Columbia Law School, or our new buddies at Climate Case Chart or even The Hague itself.

Or, if you prefer, here’s the part of the decision that really matters:

The decision
The court:

5.1.
denies the claims of ActionAid and the individual claimants for procedural reasons;

5.2.
declares the other collective claims not-allowable insofar as they serve the interest of the entire world population in curbing dangerous climate change caused by CO2 emissions;

5.3.
orders RDS, both directly and via the companies and legal entities it commonly includes in its consolidated annual accounts and with which it jointly forms the Shell group, to limit or cause to be limited the aggregate annual volume of all CO2 emissions into the atmosphere (Scope 1, 2 and 3) due to the business operations and sold energy-carrying products of the Shell group to such an extent that this volume will have reduced by at least net 45% at end 2030, relative to 2019 levels;

5.4.
orders RDS to pay the costs of the proceedings on the part of Milieudefensie et al., estimated up to this judgment at € 22,732.51, plus statutory interest as of two weeks from the date of this judgment;

5.5.
orders ActionAid to pay the costs of the proceedings on the part of RDS, estimated up to this judgment at € 1,126, plus statutory interest as of two weeks from the date of this judgment;

5.6.
orders Milieudefensie et al. to pay the costs of the proceedings on the part of RDS, estimated up to this judgment at € 1,126, plus statutory interest as of two weeks from the date of this judgment;

5.7.
estimates the subsequent costs of Milieudefensie et al. and RDS at € 163 without service and increased by € 85 in case of service.

5.8.
declares the orders referred to in 5.3 through to 5.6 provisionally enforceable;

5.9.
dismisses all other applications.

This judgment was delivered by mr. L. Alwin, mr. I.A.M. Kroft and mr. M.L. Harmsen and pronounced in open court on 26 May 2021