Climate Change Litigation After Milieudefensive v. Royal Dutch Shell

Climate change litigation against governments for failing to comply with treaties is one thing. Class action lawsuits similarly based on international treaties against corporate defendants for having failed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from their operations or the use of their products, such as oil for example, does bring us into uncharted territory, and that seems to be the takeaway from the decisions of the District Court of The Hague in Milieudefensie v. Royal Dutch Shell where the Court ordered the oil company to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions below its 2019 levels by 45% by 2030. 

This is the first court decision ordering a corporation to reduce its overall greenhouse gas emissions, and it will definitely be one of interest to litigators and corporate lawyers alike everywhere in the world.