"Chevron and Shell, in separate cases on different continents, cited the same passage from the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report that greenhouse gas emissions are driven by population size, economic activity, lifestyle, energy use to argue that responsibility lies with modern industrial society as a whole."
"RWE's lawyer told the court that the company's emissions had been produced for the common good to ensure a stable energy supply. RWE's lawyers argued that CO2 molecules were indistinguishable from each other, making it legally impossible to trace a specific emission to a specific harm."
"Shell, sued by Dutch environmental groups demanding a 45% emissions cut by 2030, argued in its appeal that the energy transition was the responsibility of governments and society, not solely the companies."
Fossil fuel companies like Shell, Chevron, RWE, and TotalEnergies acknowledge climate change as real and human-caused. In legal contexts, they argue that climate change is a collective issue driven by societal energy demands rather than their individual actions. Research reveals three strategies used by these companies in court, including the claim that emissions are a societal problem and that specific emissions cannot be traced to specific harms. This marks a shift from outright denial to a more nuanced legal defense.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]