“Dutch NGO hits Shell with fresh legal challenge - and the impact could be ‘enormous’”, 13 May 2025.

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Shell has been threatened with another round of legal action in the Netherlands for continuing to develop oil and gas projects around the world.

In a letter sent to Shell today, NGO Milieudefensie accuses the company of breaching its legal duty of care under Dutch law by not dramatically reducing its investments in fossil fuels and not putting in place what it considers an adequate climate strategy for the coming decades.

It plans to take Shell to court if these issues are not addressed.

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The action builds on another lawsuit that Milieudefensie - the Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth - is still embroiled in with Shell over its climate targets up to 2030.

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Last year, Shell managed to overturn a landmark climate judgment by a Dutch court, which in 2021 had ordered it to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent by the end of the decade. …

Milieudefensie appealed and the case is now at the Dutch Supreme Court.

… the appeal court refused to set a specific legal climate goal it did rule that Shell has a “special responsibility” to cut its emissions …

And it said it was “reasonable to expect oil and gas companies to take into account the negative consequences of a further expansion of the supply of fossil fuels for the energy transition also when investing in the production of fossil fuels. Shell’s planned investments in new oil and gas fields may be at odds with this. …

Milieudefensie is seizing on this statement to justify its latest legal threat. It notes that, despite increasing its volume of renewables, Shell is still planning to develop hundreds of new oil and gas fields.

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Milieudefensie plans to ask the court to order Shell to stop investing in new oil and gas fields.

And it wants the company to be ordered to set greenhouse gas emission targets for the years after 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global temperature rise under 1.5C.

… After the 2021 court ruling, Shell moved its headquarters from The Hague to the UK. And it could be difficult for Dutch courts to enforce an order for Shell’s legal development activities outside the Netherlands.

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In a statement, Shell said it was reviewing the letter.

“We agree urgent action is needed to tackle climate change," it said.

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