The judges condemn Shell to reduce its emissions more

A district court in The Hague shows one of the largest oil companies in the world the limits. The judges condemn Shell to reduce its climate-damaging emissions much more than the management wanted. By 2030, the company must push its emissions 45 percent below the level of 2019. And not just his own - but also those of his customers and suppliers. The Dutch court intervenes more directly than seldom before in the business model of the oil multinational. Piquant Petitesse: The Dutch royal family is Shell's major shareholder. The judgment is also tough in another way: a legal authority disregards the law and takes the place of the legislature - a hint also for the politicians, who previously wrote less stringent requirements for the industry. This is likely to shake up the global oil industry. At least Western corporations that don't take international climate agreements as seriously as hoped - and try to ignore them in an effort to do good business. For the first time, a multinational corporation has to take responsibility for the climate change it has caused. So far, something like this was hardly imaginable. If the industrialized countries - also under pressure from the courts - take climate policy and resource conservation more seriously than before, this does not necessarily mean falling oil and gas production. When Shell surrenders production capacities and market shares as a result of the Hague ruling, competitors in other parts of the world will rub hands together. Especially where climate protection is less discussed - in Russia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, for example. The inertia is huge. It's about trillions. Shell, of all people, provides a current example of how the market could shift. The group recently sold its stake in a Texas refinery to the Mexican state-owned company Pemex. This provided revenue of around $ 600 million and eased the company's internal emissions balance. The environment does not feel any of this. The system continues to run unabated. Only the profits are now booked in Mexico City - far away from The Hague.