Tag Archives: disinvest fossil fuels

New Climate Lawsuit Against Shell, 2025

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Shell is under intensifying legal scrutiny as environmental organization Milieudefensie, the Dutch branch of Friends of the Earth, announces fresh legal action. The NGO, based in Netherlands, claims that by investing in new oil and gas projects despite a previous court decision requiring emissions reductions, the oil and gas company violated its duty of care under Dutch law. This case could escalate tensions between fossil fuel corporations and climate activists pressing for stricter adherence to international climate goals.

The foundation of this new lawsuit lies in a historic 2021 court decision, upheld in part during a 2023 appeal, which found Shell partially liable for climate change. The appeal acknowledged Shell’s obligation to reduce CO2 emissions, citing its substantial role in contributing to the climate crisis. However, it stopped short of specifying a target percentage for reductions. Milieudefensie now argues that Shell’s ongoing fossil fuel investments clearly violate the legal duties affirmed by that judgment. “Companies like Shell have it within their power to combat the climate problem and therefore have a legal obligation to reduce emissions,” stated the Dutch Court of Appeal.

Shell has stated  that it plans to expand fossil fuel operations, particularly in the sectors of liquefied natural gas and oil production through 2040. This strategy directly conflicts with climate science, which indicates that new fossil fuel development must be halted to limit global warming to 1.5°C.  More than 700 new oil and gas fields are presently under development by Shell, per a thorough report by Milieudefensie and Global Witness. Since May 2021, Shell has finalized investment decisions for 32 new projects, potentially resulting in 972 million tons of CO2 emissions, an amount nearly equivalent to the annual emissions of the entire European Union.

Excerpt from Shell Faces Renewed Legal Pressure on Fossil Fuel Expansion, Zacks, May 14, 2025

 

Environmental Victories of 2024

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End of Fossil Fuels? The year 2024 r saw some extraordinary breakthroughs for climate and nature. The UK closed its last coal-fired power plant in 2024….As countries aim to rapidly decarbonise their economies, many former fossil fuel power plants are proving to be promising sites for industrial-scale batteries.…Renewable energy sources are growing rapidly around the world. In the US, wind energy generation hit a record in April 2024, exceeding coal-fired generation….By the end of this decade, renewable energy sources are set to meet almost half of all electricity.  The lion’s share of this growth comes from just one country:

The rivers, mountains, waves and whales given legal personhood
Back in 2021, the Ecuadorian government issued a landmark ruling stating that mining in its Los Cedros cloud forest violated the rights of nature. Another ruling in Ecuador stated that pollution had violated the rights of the Machángara River that runs through the capital, Quito. Beyond Ecuador, a growing number of natural features and spaces were granted legal personhood in 2024. In New Zealand, the peaks of Egmont National Park – renamed Te Papakura o Taranaki – were recognised as ancestral mountains and jointly became a legal person, known as Te Kāhui Tupua.] In Brazil, part of the ocean was given legal personhood – with the coastal city of Linhares recognising its waves as living beings, granting them the right to existence, regeneration and restoration. Meanwhile, a new treaty formed by Pacific Indigenous leaders saw whales and dolphins officially recognised as “legal persons”.

New ocean protections for the Azores
The North Atlantic saw a new marine protected area (MPA) announced by the Azores. When established, it will be the largest in the region, spanning 30% of the sea around the Portuguese archipelago. Half of the 111,000 sq miles (287,000 sq km) protected area will be “fully protected”, with no fishing or other natural resource extraction, according to the initiative behind the MPA. The other half will be “highly protected”.
The area contains nine hydrothermal vents, 28 species of marine mammals and 560 species of fish, among many others. 

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped to a nine-year low in 2024, falling by more than 30% in the 12 months to July, 2024 according to data released by Brazil’s national space research institute, INPE. nt

The Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative saved the critically endangered in the Golden Steppe grassland from extinction. The project used careful, science-based monitoring, tagging and habitat protection and restoration to ensure the best recovery for the Saiga Antelope, which numbered just 20,000 in 2003. Today, 2.86 million of the antelope roam the Golden Steppe, and it has been moved from “critically endangered” to “near threatened” status on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.

After a 100-year hiatus, salmon were spotted in Oregon’s Klamath River basin, following an historic dam removal further downstream in the California stretch of the Klamath. In August 2024, the final of four dams were removed – in what was America’s biggest dam removal project – following pressure from environmentalists and tribes.

Excerpts from Isabelle Gerretsen et al., Seven quiet breakthroughs for climate and nature in 2024 you might have missed, BBC, Dec. 16, 2024

Loving Oil in Any Way, Shape or Form — Damn Climate Change!

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Many oil assets are ending up in the hands of private-equity (PE) firms. In the past two years alone these bought $60bn-worth of oil, gas and coal assets, through 500 transactions… Some have been multibillion-dollar deals, with giants such as Blackstone, Carlyle and KKR carving out huge oilfields, coal-fired power plants or gas grids from energy groups, miners and utilities. Many other deals, sealed by smaller rivals, get little publicity. This sits uncomfortably with the credo of many pension funds, universities and other investors in private funds, 1,485 of which, representing $39trn in assets, have pledged to divest fossil fuels. But few seem ready to leave juicy returns on the table.

As demand for oil and gas persists while dwindling investment in production limits supply, prices are rising again, boosting producers’ profits….And discounts imposed on “brown” assets by the stock market, linked to sustainability factors rather than financial… create even more pockets of opportunity…The Economist has looked at 8 PE firms that have closed fossil-fuel deals in 2020-2021 The investors in some of their latest energy-flavored vehicles include 53 pension funds, 23 universities and 32 foundations. Many are from America, such as Teacher Retirement System of Texas, the University of San Francisco and the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, but that is partly because more institutions based there disclose pe commitments. The list also features Britain’s West Yorkshire Pension Fund and China Life. Over time, some investors may decide to opt out of funding their portion of fossil-fuel deals.

But a third, yet more opaque class stands ready to step in: state-owned firms and sovereign funds operating in the shadows. Last month Saudi Aramco, the Kingdom’s national oil company, acquired a 30% stake in a refinery in Poland, and Somoil, an Angolan group, bought offshore oil assets from France’s Total. In 2020 Singapore’s GIC was part of the group that paid $10bn for a stake in an Emirati pipeline.

Excerpts from Who buys the dirty energy assets public companies no longer want?, Economist, Feb. 12, 2022