Dutch court to rule on Shell’s climate change responsibility

A verdict holding oil companies liable for greenhouse gas emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels they have extracted would be a landmark victory for environmental campaigners.

A Dutch court verdict against Royal Dutch Shell Plc will determine whether it has a legal responsibility for climate change, in a case that will be watched by Big Oil executives globally. A panel of judges in a lower court in The Hague will rule on Wednesday in a case being followed closely by environmental campaigners too. While the verdict is only legally binding in the Netherlands, it’s set to be scrutinized as a new area of litigation and may guide deliberations by judges elsewhere. Shell was sued by Milieudefensie, the Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth, whose lawyers spent two weeks in court earlier this year arguing that the company is violating human rights by extracting fossil fuels and undermining the Paris Agreement’s aim of limiting temperature increases to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius.