November, 12 2024, 08:56am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Al Johnson-Kurts, al@priceofoil.org,
Valentina Stackl, valentina@priceofoil.org
Activists “Just Getting Started” on Climate Lawsuits Despite Shell Judgement
THE HAGUE, Netherlands
Today, the Court of Appeal in The Hague delivered its judgment in Milieudefensie v. Shell. It established that the oil and gas giant has a legal responsibility to reduce its emissions, but it rules that it cannot derive a specific emission reduction obligation for Shell. In 2021, the District Court ordered Shell to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 45% from 2019 levels by 2030, effective immediately, citing its responsibility for climate change. This was the first time worldwide that a court established that a corporation had a legal obligation to reduce its emissions in line with the climate goals of the Paris Agreement, including the 1.5ºC global temperature rise limit. Shell appealed, with hearings held earlier this year.
In a surprise pivot, the court noted that all of Shell’s new investments in oil and gas fields are incompatible with the internationally agreed global temperature rise limit. The court went even further to say that Shell is aware that these oil and gas investments “lock in” climate pollution, and yet it continues to massively invest in oil and gas. The court noted that climate goals can only be met if production of oil and gas is curtailed. This creates an important opening for future climate litigation targeting fossil fuel companies based on their investments.
Shell has flagrantly expanded oil and gas projects, defying the previous order to align its plans with what is required to curb the climate crisis. Research by OCI and Milieudefensie in 2022 demonstrated Shell should stop all new oil and gas fields to comply with the court ruling, but the opposite happened. Our 2024 research shows that since the court ruling in the climate case against Shell:
- Shell approved construction of at least 20 major projects.
- Shell has over 800 oil and gas fields in the pipeline to be developed.
- These threaten to cause over 5 billion tons of additional CO2 emissions; around 38 times the emissions of the entire Netherlands.
Inspired by the ruling against Shell, groups around the world have been filing climate lawsuits against polluting corporations and governments to amend their environmental policies and deliver climate justice. At least 86 lawsuits have been filed against fossil fuel producers, with the vast majority filed since the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).
Laurie van der Burg, Oil Change International, said:
“While we mourn today’s setback, the ruling establishes a responsibility for big oil and gas to act that future litigation can build on. The court ruled protection against climate change is a human right, and corporations have a responsibility to reduce their emissions. As far as we know, this is the first case where a court has acknowledged that new investments in oil and gas are incompatible with international climate goals.
“Our data shows Shell has over 800 new oil and gas projects in the pipeline that are all incompatible with the 1.5°C global temperature rise limit, and other Big Oil companies are on a similar course to destruction. That’s why the Shell case is part of a wave of recent climate cases to hold oil and gas companies – the climate arsonists fueling climate chaos – accountable for their role in driving the crisis. At least 86 lawsuits have been filed against fossil fuel producers, with the vast majority filed since the 2015 Paris agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
“Rich fossil fuel producing countries gathering in Baku this week should take notice. Unless they stop propping up fossil fuels with billions of dollars in subsidies and instead take responsibility for paying the climate finance they owe to the Global South they too will be held responsible in court. We’re just getting started.”
Oil Change International is a research, communications, and advocacy organization focused on exposing the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitating the ongoing transition to clean energy.
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Warren Bill Would Stop Companies From Placing Shareholder Paydays Over Worker Rights
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Dec 11, 2024
Aiming to confront "a root cause of many of America's fundamental economic problems," U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday unveiled a bill to require corporations to balance growth with fair treatment of their employees and consumers.
The Massachusetts Democrat introduced the Accountable Capitalism Act, explaining that for much of U.S. history, corporations reinvested more than half of their profits back into their companies, working in the interest of employees, customers, business partners, and shareholders.
In the 1980s, said Warren corporations began placing the latter group above all, adopting "the belief that their only legitimate and legal purpose was 'maximizing shareholder value.'"
That view was further cemented in 1997 when the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group that represents chief executives across the country, declared that the "principal objective of a business enterprise is to generate economic returns to its owners."
Now, Warren said in a policy document, "around 93% of American-held corporate shares are owned by just 10% of our nation's richest households, while more than 40% of American households hold no shares at all."
"This means that corporate America's commitment to 'maximizing shareholder return' is a commitment to making the rich even richer, while leaving workers and families behind," said Warren in a statement.
The Accountable Capitalism Act would require:
- Corporations with more than $1 billion in annual revenue to obtain a federal charter as a "United States corporation," obligating executives to consider the interests of all stakeholders, not just investors;
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Warren noted that as companies have increasingly poured their profits into stock buybacks to benefit shareholders, worker productivity has steadily increased while real wages have gone up only slightly. The share of national income that goes to workers has also significantly dropped.
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The senator highlighted that big business interests invested heavily in November's U.S. presidential election.
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In a move likely fraught with major implications for worker rights during the impending second administration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, Democratic-turned-Independent U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema on Wednesday blocked Democrat Lauren McFerran's bid for a second term on the National Labor Relations Board.
With every Republican senator except Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas voting against President Joe Biden's nomination of McFerran for a new five-year term, the fate of the woman who has led the agency since 2021 was up to Manchin and Sinema—who, as More Perfect Union founder and executive director Faiz Shakir put it on social media, "consistently spoiled the story of 'what could have been'" by years of fighting to thwart their own former party's agenda.
Sinema struck first, her "no" vote on McFerran grinding the confirmation tally to a 49-49 tie. Manchin, who showed up later, cast the decisive vote, negating speculation that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Senate president who lost the presidential contest to Trump last month, would break the stalemate.
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Chris Jackson, a former Democratic Lawrence County, Tennessee commissioner and longtime labor advocate, called Manchin and Sinema's votes "a crushing blow to the labor agenda."
"By casting decisive NO votes against President Biden's NLRB nominee, they've guaranteed Democrats will lose control of the national labor board until at least 2026," Jackson said. "Their votes effectively hand Donald Trump the keys to the board the moment he takes office again. This is a betrayal of working families—and a gift to corporate interests, which is par for the course for these two."
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union, said on social media that while "Manchin and Sinema are responsible for killing voting rights, worker rights, women's rights, LGBTQ rights, childcare, vision, and dental for seniors, and an economy built for the people," the two obstructionist senators "are not the story."
"Don't bury the lede," implored Nelson. "The entire GOP has relentlessly fought against anything good for the vast majority of the people of this country. The GOP shows once again their total disdain for their constituents."
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Trump's first term saw relentless attacks on workers' rights. Critics fear a second Trump administration—whose officials and agenda are steeped in the anti-worker Project 2025—will roll back gains achieved under Biden and work to weaken the right to organize, water down workplace health and safety rules, and strip overtime pay, to name but a handful of GOP wish-list items.
The latest votes by Manchin and Sinema—who are both leaving Congress after this term—sparked widespread outrage among workers' rights defenders on social media, with one account on X, formerly known as Twitter, posting: "Manchin is geriatric and Sinema has a long fruitful career ahead of her in a consulting firm that advocates child slave labor, but at least they kicked the working class in the teeth one last time. Nothing to do now but hope there's a hell."
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Praise for Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan continued to pour in on Wednesday after a pair of judges blocked the merger of grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons following challenges by the FTC and state attorneys general.
"The proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger would have led to higher prices at the grocery store and harmed workers," said U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. "Let me thank FTC Chair Lina Khan for successfully fighting this merger and standing up to corporate greed."
Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) also welcomed the rulings and sent "a big thank you to Lina Khan and her team at the FTC."
Their comments on Wednesday followed similar applause from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal as well as groups including the American Economic Liberties Project (AELP) and Groundwork Collaborative.
Khan addressed the win during a Tuesday stream with political commentator Hasan Piker, noting that "this is the first time that the FTC has ever sought to block a merger not just because it's gonna be bad for consumers, but also because it's gonna be bad for workers."
Khan, an appointee of outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden, has won praise from progressives for taking on not only grocery giants and other companies trying to build monopolies but also Big Pharma and Big Tech.
Sanders recently called her "the best FTC chair in modern history" and AELP earlier this year published a document detailing how, under Khan's leadership, the agency "has entered a new era of more effective, modern, and democratic enforcement to better protect consumers, workers, and independent businesses."
Examples included in the AELP roundup include Khan's "crackdown on deceptive 'junk fees,'" a ban on noncompete clauses that's being challenged in court, a historic lawsuit against Amazon.com, and a "click-to-cancel" rule that requires sellers to "make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up."
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