Posted by John Donovan: 13 November 2024
What a victory for the planet! Shell, our favorite corporate climate warrior, has scored big in Dutch court, overturning a pesky 2021 ruling that dared to order them to cut emissions by 45% by 2030. Because, honestly, who needs court-mandated carbon cuts when you’re already hard at work planning hundreds of new oil and gas projects?
The original ruling, if you can believe it, had the nerve to suggest that Shell should align with the Paris Agreement and actually reduce emissions, you know, like those climate activists keep yelling about. Friends of the Earth Netherlands even had 17,000 co-plaintiffs arguing that Shell’s relentless fossil fuel production might just be making the climate crisis worse. But Shell’s appeal argued that emissions are a political issue, not a corporate one—because apparently, “saving the planet” is above Shell’s pay grade.