Activists take Shell to court
AS A LEGAL case over energy giant Shell's planet-heating emissions kicked off in the Netherlands yesterday, activists said the health and livelihoods of people in Nigeria's oil-producing region would hinge on its outcome.
Royal Dutch Shell faced its first court hearing in a lawsuit brought by environmental and human rights groups in The Hague, the company's headquarters.
Seven activist groups, including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, filed the lawsuit in the Netherlands in April last year on behalf of more than 17 000 Dutch citizens who say the oil major is threatening human rights as it continues to invest billions in the production of fossil fuels.
They are demanding that Shell cuts its greenhouse gas emissions almost in half by 2030 and to zero by 2050 – which would effectively force the AngloDutch firm to quickly move away from oil and gas and direct its investment to sustainable sources of energy.
Shell has repeatedly said it agreed that action to fight climate change was needed, but that this court case would not help.
“No company can change the energy system by itself,” Shell's lawyer, Dennis
Horeman, said in court.
“All countries where Shell operates are determining policies to shape the energy transition.
“Shell will have to adjust its priorities and investments to those policies.”
The plaintiffs say Shell is fully aware of the detrimental effects fossil fuels have on climate change.
“Shell's policies put it on a collision course with international climate agreements,” the groups' lawyer, Roger Cox, said in his opening statement at the court.
“It is extremely dangerous and puts a brake on any action individual countries might be willing to take.”
Shell has ramped up investment in biofuels, hydrogen and wind power in recent years and has promised to reduce the carbon intensity of the energy products it sells by 30% by 2035, compared with 2016 levels, as it aims for “net-zero emissions” by 2050.
But the green groups demand at least a 45% reduction of Shell's total emissions by 2030, relative to the pollution caused in 2019, as a step towards carbon-neutral production two decades later. They feel strengthened by the so-called “Urgenda” case, in which the
Dutch High Court last year ordered its government to step up the fight against climate change, as it said a lack of action was putting Dutch citizens in danger.
But Shell said that even though it supported international agreements to combat climate change, companies were not parties to these and cannot be held responsible in the same way as governments.
The district court of The Hague, where Shell is headquartered, has planned four days of hearings in the case in December. It is not yet clear when the court will reach a decision.
In the Niger Delta, community members who said the oil giant's activities had worsened their health for decades were hopeful the multinational might be forced to step up action. “People are suffering.
“Our environment is our life,” said Jonah Gbemre, an activist from the town of Iwhrekan who sued Shell 15 years ago over its practice of gas flaring, which he said causes eye and breathing problems and reduces crop yields.
“People are sick. Personally, I have eye problems,” he said. F
laring is when the natural gas that is often produced as a by-product of oil extraction is burnt off in a controlled way. Nigeria's High Court ruled in Gbemre's favour in 2005, saying the practice violated human rights, but the burning of waste gas has continued as the case is still pending an appeal.
A Shell spokesperson said the company had reduced routine flaring and remaining sites were in remote areas.
“We don't have money to fight the government, to fight the multinationals,” Gbemre said by phone, adding he was hopeful the current case would have a bigger impact than his because it was happening in Europe.
Besides the problems caused by gas flaring, Gbemre said his community was suffering from increasing floods and rising sea levels linked to global warming, for which he also blames Shell.
Shell ranked ninth on a list of corporations with the highest greenhouse gas emissions globally from 1988-2015, according to a study by CDP Worldwide, an environmental charity.
ActionAid, another rights group that has become involved in the case, said it hoped a ruling would bring relief for vulnerable communities in the Niger Delta and other parts of the world.