Dutch Appeals Court Rules That Shell Does Not Need To Reduce Its CO2 Emissions By Specific Amount

Three years ago, a court in the Netherlands had ruled that Shell--a multinational fossil fuel company based in the Netherlands--had the obligation to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by forty-five percent by 2030, relative to the 2019 level. That decision has now been overturned on appeal by an intermediate court of appeals in the Netherlands. Specifically, the court held that although "Shell has an obligation to counter dangerous climate change . . . [that] does not mean that the civil court is able to establish that Shell should reduce its CO2 emissions by 45%, or any other percentage." In other words, a central component of the earlier decision--the imposition of a court-ordered legal requirement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a set percentage--has now been vacated by a higher court.