EPACalifornia is experiencing more frequent forest fires due to climate change
The American state of California is taking five major oil companies, including Shell, to court. The companies must contribute billions to the costs caused by climate change, the public prosecutor says.
The lawsuit could have major consequences. “If the judge rules in California, it will be the end of the profitability of oil companies,” said Mark van Baal, founder of Follow This, a group of investors that tries to force oil companies to reduce their emissions.
‘Oil companies are still misleading us’
The companies that have to answer before the court are Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, Shell and ExxonMobil. According to the indictment, the companies have known since the middle of the last century that their activities were warming the planet, but then lied about it. “Central to the case are reports from the companies themselves showing that they already knew in the 1970s that their products would lead to dangerous climate change,” says Dennis van Berkel, lawyer at climate organization Urgenda.
The oil companies misled the public about this, according to the prosecutor. Van Berkel: “They invested in advertisements and reports, all of which had the aim of sowing doubt about the science that they themselves had initially produced.”
Prosecutors say they spent billions of dollars spreading disinformation about climate change. And they still haven’t stopped doing that, Van Berkel sees. “The fossil industry says: trust us, we are going to zero emissions by 2050. While at the same time they indicate that they are doing their best to pump up as much oil as possible.”
Van Baal agrees. Shell will hardly increase its investments in sustainable energy this year. “They continue to mislead us by saying they are part of the solution, while they continue to invest massively in even more oil and gas.”
This case is a huge waste of taxpayers’ money.
American Petroleum Institute
A Shell spokesperson says otherwise News hour that the company “fully supports the need for society to transition to a low-carbon future.” But the courtroom is not the right place to tackle climate change, the company believes. The American Petroleum Institute even calls the case “a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars.” Climate policy is a matter for the legislator, and not for judges, the trade association says News hour.
But according to Van Berkel, these types of lawsuits are desperately needed. “The oil that companies still plan to pump is much more than we are allowed to emit. These companies are a major obstacle to the energy transition. That is why this case must be brought.”
With Urgenda, lawyer Van Berkel won an important case against the Dutch state, forcing the government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions more quickly. In California, it is the government that wants to tackle companies. “This case really goes a big step further. The Urgenda case was about the fact that the government has a responsibility to protect its citizens against the consequences of climate change. This case is about responsibility for the damage that has been caused.”
Einde Shell?
According to California, the concerns are responsible for, among other things, flooding, extreme heat and loss of biodiversity. If the judge agrees with the reasoning, it could have enormous consequences for the oil companies, says Van Baal. “The costs of the consequences of climate change are many times greater than the profits they make now.”
Investing in polluting energy is then no longer profitable. “They will finally invest in sustainable energy. They are now on the brakes while we really need their billions and their knowledge to invest in sustainable energy.”
California wants a fund into which fossil companies can deposit money for measures to deal with the impact of climate change. There is a chance that the damages will become so high that the groups will go bankrupt, says Van Baal. “That is a very big risk that they have brought upon themselves.”
In recent years, climate organizations have increasingly taken the legal route:
2023-09-17 20:02:02
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