AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The environmental NGO which won a court order last year ordering Royal Dutch Shell to further cut its greenhouse gas emissions has warned the group’s executives that they will be personally liable if the judgment is not applied.
A court in The Hague ordered the Anglo-Dutch group in May 2021 to reduce its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels, an unprecedented decision which could pave the way for legal proceedings against the energy companies around the world.
Shell appealed this decision.
The Dutch branch of environmental organization Friends of the Earth said it sent a letter on Sunday to the company’s boards and individual representatives, including chief executive Ben van Beurden, accusing them not to act to enforce the decision of the Dutch court.
“Shell has appealed, but the court has declared the judgment provisionally enforceable, meaning that necessary climate action cannot be put on hold pending the appeal,” the NGO said in its letter, which Reuters was able to see. a copy.
“Milieudefensie believes that the directors of Shell risk seeing their personal liability engaged in the future by not taking measures in line with the objective (…) of reducing global CO2 emissions by almost half by 2030.”
Shell, which says it complies with the judgment on most of its points, said it is examining the letter from the NGO.
“The court gave Shell broad discretion as to how to meet the reduction obligation by the 2030 deadline. Our strategy and the actions we are taking put us in a good position to meet the obligations of the court,” the group said.
However, the company has not commented on the possible responsibility of the board of directors regarding compliance with the decision.
In its appeal filed in March, the oil giant argued that it had been wrongly held responsible for emissions it could not control.
Shell has set itself the goal of reducing its emissions by more than 50% by 2030, but its strategy calls for using carbon storage and offsetting rather than reducing emissions.
(Report Toby Sterling, French version Diana Mandiá, edited by Sophie Louet)
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