Dutch campaigning group Milieudefensie is preparing to file a new climate case against Shell. (Photo credit Milieudefensie - Marten van Dijl.)

The case is intended to serve as a blanket judgement that could stop multiple oil and gas fields from being opened, the first ever attempt at legally banning a company from all new extraction.

The group is asking the court to impose specific targets on Shell to reduce its emissions between 2030 and 2050. Shell has set no such targets yet and the company plans to extract more gas in the coming years.

All of this comes against a backdrop of many oil majors reducing renewable invest in order to focus on more profitable fossil fuels and a political landscape that has to some placed energy security above rapid transition.

This new climate case against Shell has been brought whilst an existing lawsuit against Shell over its carbon reduction responsibility is still ongoing. In the previous lawsuit, Shell was asked to curb its emissions by 45 per cent by 2030, in line with the Paris Agreement. In November 2024, the Court of Appeal ruled that Shell must reduce its emissions, but it did not impose a specific reduction target. Without a target, any action has been difficult to enforce, hence the new case.

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