City of Paris achieves partial victory over TotalEnergies in climate risks case

A Paris court has ​ruled that the French oil company TotalEnergies must disclose the climate risks linked to emissions from its oil and gas products and set out plans to ⁠address them in a high-stakes case brought by NGOs and the city of Paris. The ruling on Thursday is a partial victory for climate change NGOs seeking to apply France’s 2017 corporate duty of vigilance law to the climate crisis. However, the ⁠court stopped short of ordering specific measures such as limiting overseas exploration and production or setting binding ​emissions reduction targets. The case is the latest in a growing wave of climate litigation targeting big corporate emitters. The NGOs and TotalEnergies battled at the Paris judicial court over whether environmental risks fall within France’s corporate duty of vigilance law, which was enacted in 2017. The court said: “Climate-related risks and impacts to which the company may contribute through its activities fall within the scope of the law on the duty of vigilance for parent companies and ordering companies.” The city of Paris hailed the ruling as “a landmark decision in the history of French climate law”. The deputy mayor, Alice Timsit, said: “For the first time, a judge recognises that climate risks do indeed fall under the duty of vigilance owed by large corporations, and no fossil-fuel multinational can evade this responsibility. …