Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, around 230 legal actions have been filed against companies or professional organizations, and more than two-thirds of them have been launched since 2020.
Judicial pressure is intensifying on companies to align their activities with the fight against climate change, thanks to a recent increase in procedures around the world, according to the benchmark British study published Thursday. Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, around 230 legal actions have been filed against companies or professional organizations, and more than two-thirds of them have been launched since 2020, according to experts at the Grantham Research Institute in London. School of Economics.
“Proceedings against companies have traditionally focused on the fossil fuel sector, but are now targeting others, including airlines, the food and beverage industry, e-commerce and financial services” , note the experts.
The case of the oil giant Shell, which appealed against its conviction in 2021 in the Netherlands to increase its decarbonization objectives, has become emblematic.
Less than 10% of the 2,666 climate procedures in the world
Accusations of misleading communication about climate ambitions are the first reason that brings companies to court. In 2023 in the United Kingdom, magistrates found advertisements from airlines Air France, Lufthansa and Etihad to be misleading, a few months after a similar decision in Vienna against Austrian Airlines.
Some are also being prosecuted in the name of the “polluter pays” principle or to “turn off the tap” on fossil fuels, by opposing extraction projects or their financing. In France, TotalEnergies is thus targeted by several NGO procedures, notably one against its oil projects in Africa, another to force it to accelerate its exit from fossil fuels while a complaint, filed in May in Paris, calls for prosecution criminal charges for its responsibility in “climate chaos”.
These 230 legal actions against companies still represent less than 10% of the 2,666 climate procedures in the world, the overwhelming majority of which target public authorities, according to the reference database of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. But a clear trend is emerging, since 25% of new actions launched in 2023 targeted economic actors, underlines the report.
Climate court cases extending beyond the United States
Historically, the vast majority of climate legal cases have been carried out in the United States, but they are gradually spreading: a first case was recorded in 2023 in Portugal – where the State is accused of violating human rights by failure of its climate policy – and another in Panama, while the countries of the South now represent 8% of the cases recorded, mainly in Brazil.
“2023 was an important year for international disputes linked to climate change”, say the experts, with new cases filed before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the International Court of Justice or the Inter-American Court of Justice. human rights. The latter, requested by Chile and Colombia, must give a “consultative opinion” by the end of 2024 to “clarify the extent of the obligations” of each country “to respond to the climate emergency within the framework of international law” . In April, the ECHR also condemned for the first time a State, Switzerland, for climate inaction, denounced by an association of elderly women.
“Only 5% of climate cases are brought before international courts, but many of them are likely to influence national procedures,” notes the report, which cites as an example a British decision of June 20, when the Court Supreme Court of the United Kingdom overturned the deliberation of a town in favor of a new oil well near London.
For the future, the authors of the report see new trends emerging: “post-disaster” affairs, “as evidenced by a case in Puerto Rico which calls into question the reconstruction” of the electricity network powered by fossil fuels instead of renewables, the concept of ecocide “which is gaining ground”, and the convergence of climatic and environmental considerations, for example in the fight against plastic pollution.
