After winning lawsuit against Shell: Milieudefensie announces new climate case

After the case against Shell in 2021, Dutch climate organization Milieudefensie will start a new climate case against a company that emits a lot of greenhouse gasses at the end of this year, without naming the company involved. This was announced by the director of Milieudefensie, Donald Pols, on Sunday morning in the NPO Radio 1 program Vroege Vogels. Which company it is, he could not yet say.

"Starting a lawsuit against a strong multinational takes enormously thorough preparation, and we take that time," said Pols in Vroeg Vogels.

In 2021, the environmental organization won a lawsuit against Shell for failing to reduce CO2 emissions fast enough. The court then ruled that the oil company must reduce its emissions by 45 percent by 2030 compared with 2019 levels, and that the company must start doing so immediately. Shell's appeal of that ruling is still pending. The company said that forcing a company and its customers to reduce emissions is not an effective way to combat climate change.

After winning the climate lawsuit, Milieudefensie surveyed 29 other major companies about their plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A research firm specializing in climate policy, the NewClimate Institute, calculated those plans last year. According to Milieudefensie, it showed that these plans are "still very inadequate.

Companies that scored 'low' in the NewClimate Institute's analysis included credit insurer Atradius, dredging company Boskalis, meat producer Vion, tank storage company Vopak and the branches of oil companies such as BP and ExxonMobil. In addition, large banks such as ING, Rabobank and ABN AMRO also scored low at the time.

Pols said last July that he hoped lawsuits would not be necessary, but he also made clear that he would not shy away from them. "We're not here to sue, we're here to stop dangerous climate change. If necessary, we are ready and able to bring new lawsuits," the Milieudefensie director claimed.