French Court Orders Oil Firm to Remove Misleading Climate Pledges

In a landmark ruling, a French court has ordered oil and gas company TotalEnergies to remove misleading statements from its website about the company's climate commitments. The civil court in Paris found that TotalEnergies had likely misled consumers with claims that it wanted to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and be a major player in the energy transition.

The case was brought by several environmental NGOs, including Greenpeace France and Friends of the Earth France. It is the first time France's "greenwashing" laws have been applied to a fossil fuel company. The court gave TotalEnergies one month to take down the misleading statements or face a fine of €10,000 per day. The company was also ordered to post the court's ruling on its website and pay legal costs to the NGOs.

Activists have welcomed the ruling as a significant blow against the "impunity of fossil fuel greenwashing" that TotalEnergies has enjoyed until now. The court dismissed a separate accusation of greenwashing over the company's claims about fossil gas and biofuels, finding those statements were for informational rather than commercial purposes.

However, the ruling underscores the growing legal pressure on oil and gas majors to align their environmental claims with the realities of climate science. Experts have warned that the world already has enough existing and planned fossil fuel infrastructure to exceed the 1.5°C global warming target, making new exploration projects incompatible with climate goals.