In 2019, Milieudefensie – the Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth – joined several other non-profits and 17,000 individuals to file a lawsuit against Royal Dutch Shell plc. In it, the plaintiffs ask the court to force Shell to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions between 2019 and 2030 by 45%.
The District Court of The Hague held four hearings on the case in December, and released a verdict on 26 May 2021.
As part of the proceedings, SEI Senior Scientist Peter Erickson wrote a letter to the court that reviews a Shell-commissioned report on oil and gas production. He concludes that the authors of the report “draw several questionable and misleading conclusions from the evidence they present” and finds that restricting Shell’s oil and gas production would help reduce global CO2 emissions.
SEI Senior Scientist Peter Erickson comments on the verdict, which says Shell must cut its CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030, compared to 2019 levels.
