The Dutch Court’s decision against Royal Dutch Shell Plc will determine whether it has a direct bearing on climate change, in a case to be reviewed by Big Oil executives around the world.
A panel of judges in the lower court in The Hague will rule Wednesday on a case that is being closely followed by environmentalists. Although the ruling is only legal in the Netherlands, it should be considered as a new judicial body and could streamline judicial discussions elsewhere.
Shell was sued by Milieudefensie, a Dutch group of Friends of the Earth, whose lawyers sat in court for two weeks earlier this year alleging that the company was violating human rights by importing oil and undermining the Paris Agreement to reduce global warming to 1.5 percent. degrees Celsius.
Oil companies around the world have a policy called care that should be respected in the countries where they operate to prevent the loss of oil and other non-hazardous substances. The verdict blamed for greenhouse gas emissions caused by burning of the oil they found could be a success for environmentalists, who have gone to court to change. Last count, there were nearly 1,700 cases involving climate change against governments and corporations, according to the weathercasechart.com repository.
“Undoubtedly, this is a very important case,” said Eric De Brabandere, a professor of international law at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Not only is it fighting against such a large oil company but it is also attacking all oil companies. ”
Shell acknowledges that it has a role to play in tackling climate change and says it does so, but that it is only possible because of cooperation rather than judgment.
“Tackling climate change is a big, big problem and requires global cooperation and cooperation,” Shell Legal Director Donny Ching said at the company’s annual meeting last week. “I don’t think the courts will help us.”
A 17,000 defendants
The Milieudefensie gathered 17,000 people to sign a petition, which it says is “the first time a court has been asked to provide a non-profit organization to release a few CO₂s to save the climate.”
“Judges around the world are facing climate change cases and are looking to fellow judges to help them,” said Michael Burger, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.
Recent elections have not been as successful as Shell in all the countries where the Anglo-Dutch company was listed. Thousands of Nigerians could sue Shell in London over environmental damage in West Africa, the UK Supreme Court said in February. One month ago, a Dutch court ordered Shell in Nigeria to pay compensation to victims of a 13-year-old oil spill in a lawsuit filed by Milieudefensie.
New York City faced a crisis last month in an attempt to set up Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc and other electronics companies to help pay for climate change, while a federal court ruled that the global crisis is politically motivated rather than criminal. .
Keeping a company liable to violate the Paris Agreement which it does not sign will not comply with international law. Although the case is being heard in The Hague, at the home of the Supreme Court and the International Criminal Court, it is being carried out in accordance with Dutch law in the lower house.
“The test will be: Is Shell responsible for mitigating climate change, and this will not be addressed,” De Brabandere said. “International law does not apply to companies, but to governments that are responsible for enforcing them on companies.”
The Dutch environmental watchdog sued the Dutch government in 2015, forcing them to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Dutch Supreme Court upheld the ruling in 2019, stating that “the government must act”.
Last week, the International Energy Agency returned to the power plants, urging them to stop producing new oil, gas and coal today or face a catastrophic global warming.
“The days of oil production are few and the traditional research companies have to change green methods quickly,” said Angus Walker, a colleague at London’s BD Pitmans. “Shell may need to read the affidavit to see if it wins the case or not.”
Some big oil met for the show Wednesday. The Engine Act 1 1 retailer wants to exchange one-third of the board of Exxon Mobil at its annual general meeting to force the redesign of a major global retailer. Author 2 of US DRM Corp. will meet with civil rights activists at their annual general meeting on the same day.
