The Paris Court of Justice on Thursday ordered TotalEnergies to integrate its customers’ greenhouse gas emissions into its monitoring plan and to consider measures relating to them.
However, the court did not go so far as to determine ‘specific measures’ to cut production, as was sought by NGOs and by the City of Paris.
In this highly anticipated ruling, the 34th Chamber of the court found that the company’s plan was ‘incomplete’, giving it six months to come into compliance, under penalty of renewed judicial oversight at the start of 2027.
The claimants, a collective of associations, supported by the City of Paris, accused the oil and gas group of failing to meet its obligations arising from a 2017 law on the ‘duty of vigilance’.
This law requires large French companies to publish a document mapping the serious risks to human rights, health, and the environment linked to their activities and to those of their business partners and to apply ‘reasonable vigilance measures’ to prevent them.
The energy conglomerate stated its position on Thursday, announcing that it would ‘complete’ its monitoring plan with the emissions of its customers, ‘relying on its sustainability report, in which it describes the actions underway to accompany customers in reducing their emissions’.
The claimants had expected the court to order TotalEnergies to halt new hydrocarbon projects and a drastic reduction in oil production (by 37% by 2030) and gas (by 25%), measures they deem necessary to mitigate global climate breakdown.
But the court refused to impose ‘specific measures’ on the company’s production activities, arguing that the law would not allow the judge ‘to substitute itself for society’, in requiring detailed measures, nor to compel the company ‘to achieve a target’.
At the heart of the dispute is the question of emissions generated by TotalEnergies’ customers when burning their products.
The City of Paris hailed ‘a decision relevant in the history of French climate law’.
TotalEnergies now has six months to complete its monitoring plan for these emissions.
This decision is accompanied by immediate enforceability, meaning that the group must comply immediately.
This case sits within a global wave of climate litigation targeting multinationals.
