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TotalEnergies must address climate risks linked to its products, French court rules
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By America Hernandez PARIS, June 25 (Reuters) - A Paris court on Thursday ruled that French oil major TotalEnergies must disclose the climate risks linked to emissions from its oil and gas products and set out plans to address them. The ruling is a partial victory for climate change NGOs seeking to apply France's 2017 corporate duty of vigilance law to climate change. However, the court stopped short of ordering specific measures such as limiting overseas exploration and production or setting binding emissions reduction targets. Climate litigation against oil majors has produced mixed results in recent years. A landmark Dutch ruling ordering Shell to cut emissions was later overturned on appeal and is now under review by the Netherlands Supreme Court. UPDATED PLAN "Climate risks to which companies can contribute by their activity are within the scope of the duty of vigilance ... The law does not mean to render companies responsible for those risks, which result from all human activity on the planet since the industrial revolution, but asks them to act according to their situation," the Paris Judicial Court said in a press release summarising key points of the ruling. TotalEnergies must present an updated vigilance plan to the court for review in six months. The company did not immediately reply to a request for comment on whether it would appeal. Earlier on Thursday, it said it did not believe the law should apply to climate risks and argued it should not be held responsible for so-called Scope 3 emissions — those generated when customers use its fuel products. A coalition including Association SHERPA, Notre Affaire à Tous, France Nature Environnement and the city of Paris filed the case in 2020, arguing TotalEnergies' oil and gas business conflicts with climate goals and breaches its duty to identify and avoid environmental harm. SHERPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The suit was initially declared inadmissible in 2023, but that decision was overturned on appeal. French prosecutors, acting as an interested party, had argued the duty of vigilance law was not intended to cover climate change. (Reporting by America Hernandez in Paris. Editing by Inti Landauro and Mark Potter)
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