This past year, a major court case against Shell, known as the klimaatzaak or climate case in the Netherlands, made headlines around the world as it ruled that the oil and gas company must reduce its carbon emissions by 45% from 2019 levels by 2030. This was, to our knowledge, the first time a court case held a company responsible in the future. Around the world, similar climate cases have cropped up against governments, fossil fuel companies and other organizations responsible for the climate crisis; more than 1500 climate-related court cases have been brought worldwide.

In this episode, we will discuss the role of court cases and strategic litigation as tactics to counter the power of fossil fuel companies at large, and Shell in particular. How effective is litigation in actually holding fossil fuel companies accountable and preventing disastrous climate breakdown? Can they account for the international nature of Shell and its contributions to global emissions? Are court cases a key tool to move towards a Future Beyond Shell?

Our guest in this first episode of two on court cases is Nine de Pater from Friends of the Earth Netherlands, known as Milieudefensie in the Netherlands.

Show notes

Some more info on the court case brought by Milieudefensie here: https://en.milieudefensie.nl/climate-case-shell

And here: https://www.foei.org/features/historic-victory-judge-forces-shell-to-drastically-reduce-co2-emissions

And for the law nerds, more detail: http://climatecasechart.com/climate-change-litigation/non-us-case/milieudefensie-et-al-v-royal-dutch-shell-plc/

Nine mentions Code Rood, a grassroots organization in the Netherlands that organizes civil disobedience actions against the fossil fuel industry: https://code-rood.org/en/what-is-code-rood/

The UN Guiding Principles reporting framework that corporations are to follow (UNGP): https://www.ungpreporting.org/