A Paris court has ruled that TotalEnergies, a French oil company, must disclose climate risks linked to emissions from its oil and gas products and set out plans to address them. The ruling is a partial victory for climate change NGOs seeking to apply France’s 2017 corporate duty of vigilance law to the climate crisis.
The case, brought by NGOs and the city of Paris, is the latest in a growing wave of climate litigation targeting big corporate emitters. They said climate-related risks and impacts fall within the scope of the law on the duty of vigilance for parent companies.
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Deputy mayor Alice Timsit said: “For the first time, a judge recognises that climate risks do indeed fall under the duty of vigilance owed by large corporations, and no fossil-fuel multinational can evade this responsibility.”
The claimants accused TotalEnergies of refusing to account for indirect emissions from end users. TotalEnergies argued that the law applied only to the company’s own operations and those of its contractors, not to customer activity. However, the court said the company’s vigilance plan was “incomplete”.
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The court gave TotalEnergies six months to amend its vigilance plan to include such emissions from end users, known as Scope 3. The court said these emissions are among those resulting from the group’s activities within the meaning of the law. TotalEnergies has said it was the victim of “demonisation” by the claimants.
Its lawyers argued that climate change would continue even if the company shut its operations. The NGOs wanted the court to order a halt in new fossil fuel projects and production cuts, but the court declined to impose such measures. In a rare move, the Paris public prosecutor intervened in the civil proceedings and echoed TotalEnergies’ stance.
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Other big polluters have been taken to court around the world. The city of Paris hailed the ruling as “a landmark decision in the history of French climate law”.
The company has six months to amend its vigilance plan to include emissions from end users.
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