A Paris court has ruled that French oil major TotalEnergies must disclose the climate risks linked to emissions from its oil and gas products and set out plans to address them. The ruling, issued on June 25, is a partial victory for climate groups that sued the company under France's corporate duty of vigilance law.
A duty to look beyond its own operations
The case was filed in 2020 by a coalition that includes the NGOs Sherpa, Notre Affaire à Tous, and France Nature Environnement, together with the city of Paris. They argued that TotalEnergies' oil and gas business conflicts with climate goals and that the company had failed to identify and prevent environmental harm, as required by the 2017 duty of vigilance law.
The court agreed that "climate-related risks and impacts to which the company may contribute through its activities fall within the scope of the law." That extends the company's responsibility to emissions from the use of its products, the so-called scope 3 emissions that make up the largest share of an oil company's carbon footprint.
Six months to produce a new plan
TotalEnergies must now submit an updated vigilance plan within six months, disclosing the climate risks tied to product emissions and the measures it will take to address them. A follow-up hearing is scheduled for January 21, 2027.
The court stopped short of ordering production cuts or binding emissions reduction targets, and it did not limit overseas exploration. For that reason, the ruling is described as a partial victory. The city of Paris nonetheless hailed it as "a landmark decision in the history of French climate law."
"For the first time, a judge recognizes that climate risks do indeed fall under the duty of vigilance owed by large corporations, and no fossil-fuel multinational can evade this responsibility," said Alice Timsit, the city's deputy mayor.
A growing wave of climate litigation
The case is part of a wider trend of lawsuits targeting major emitters around the world. Activists have used courts in the Netherlands, Germany, and elsewhere to push companies and governments toward stricter climate action. The Paris ruling gives plaintiffs a template: even where judges refuse the most aggressive remedies, they can force companies to publish the risks on their own books, and defend those disclosures in court.