Shell Got Bitten By The Paris Agreement On Climate Change

The Paris Agreement has been criticized for not imposing legally binding greenhouse gas emissions targets on countries, but that needn't mean it's toothless as the Hague District Court has demonstrated in the climate lawsuit opposing  Milieudefensie et al vs. Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

On May 26, 2021, in a groundbreaking judgement, the Hague District Court has ordered Royal Dutch Shell Plc (''RDS'') to reduce the Shell group's (RDS and the other Shell companies) Scope 1 through 3 CO2 absolute emissions with 45% by 2030 compared to its emissions in 2019. A 45% reduction by 2030 is the standardized pathway of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ("IPCC") to limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C by 2100.