Landmark Climate Ruling Against TotalEnergies Expected in Paris Amid Deadly European Heatwave
One day after France logged an all-time national high temperature, a Paris court is set to hand down a long-awaited ruling Thursday on a groundbreaking climate lawsuit that could force energy giant TotalEnergies to drastically cut its oil and gas production.
The legal challenge was brought by a coalition of non-governmental organizations and the city of Paris. Plaintiffs argue the French energy corporation is violating a 2017 domestic law that requires large companies to actively prevent human rights abuses and environmental harm across their operations. This case marks the first time France’s so-called corporate duty of vigilance law has ever been applied to climate change-related accountability.
Four environmental groups — Notre Affaire à Tous, Sherpa, ZEA, and France Nature Environnement — first launched the proceedings in 2020. They note that TotalEnergies ranks among the world’s largest cumulative historical greenhouse gas emitters, and are asking the court to order the company to cut oil output by 37% and gas production by 25% by 2030. The lawsuit also demands an immediate halt to all new fossil fuel development projects.
The ruling lands as Europe contends with an ongoing brutal heatwave that has already upended daily life across the continent. Dangerous scorching temperatures have spread to the United Kingdom and Spain, where weather agencies have joined France in issuing extreme heat red alerts covering tens of millions of people. Iconic Paris landmarks including the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum have been forced to restrict visiting hours, while school schedules and public transportation operations have been disrupted across multiple countries.
Scientists have repeatedly linked the rising frequency and severity of extreme weather events to human-caused climate change. Projections from the United Nations’ climate agency show the next five years are very likely to break even more global heat records. Data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirms Europe is warming faster than any other continent on Earth: since the 1980s, regional temperatures have risen twice as fast as the global average.
Earlier this month, the World Health Organization’s European office released a stark update: over the past four years alone, more than 200,000 people across Europe have died from heat-related causes, and the vast majority of these deaths were entirely preventable.
Thursday’s decision is the latest in a growing string of landmark judicial rulings on climate accountability globally. Last year, the International Court of Justice — the United Nations’ highest court — ruled that nations can be found in violation of international law if they fail to take adequate action to protect the planet from climate change. In 2024, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that governments are required to better protect their populations from climate change harms. The first major legal victory for climate activists came in 2019, when the Netherlands Supreme Court ruled that protection from climate change’s devastating effects qualifies as a human right, and governments hold a legal duty to protect their citizens from these risks.
