Shell clashes with climate activists in Dutch Supreme Court

Shell and climate activists went head-to-head in the Dutch Supreme Court on Friday, the latest hearing in a long-running legal battle over whether the fossil fuel giant should be forced to cut its carbon emissions.

Pressure group Milieudefensie wants judges to impose a legally binding target for emissions reduction, a measure Shell says would be ineffective and counter-productive.

Shell and Milieudefensie have spent years battling each other in the courts.

Milieudefensie won the first round in 2021 when a lower court ordered Shell to reduce carbon emissions by 45 per cent by 2030, a ruling seen as historic at the time.

The case then went to the Appeals Court, which struck down the lower court ruling in 2024 and said Shell was "already doing what is expected of them".

The Appeals Court said Shell must make an "appropriate contribution" to the Paris climate objectives, but did not set a clear emissions reduction target.

The Paris deal committed all nations to cut carbon emissions to limit warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels and encouraged them to aim for 1.5 degrees.

Milieudefensie has now taken the battle to the Supreme Court, which is expected to make a ruling in the case in the first half of next year.

Addressing the judges directly, Milieudefensie lawyer Roger Cox said courts had a crucial role in the fight against climate change.

"Judges have a major role to play in ensuring... that the responsibility resting on states and large corporations is taken seriously," he said.

"An emissions reduction order against Shell will make a significant and urgently needed contribution to combatting major climate risks and will thus help to protect human rights and the environment."

Shell lawyer Freerk Vermeulen countered it was up to governments, not courts, to regulate emissions.

"Court-imposed reduction pathways and supply restrictions for arbitrarily selected individual companies are harmful and, at the very best, ineffective," said Vermeulen.

"They lead to inconsistent outcomes and legal uncertainty. They lack nuance, flexibility, coordination and the scale which regulation at the European and national level can offer."

In a separate case, Milieudefensie is suing Shell in a bid to stop the company investing in new oil and gas fields.