<p>A Dutch court will decide on Tuesday whether to uphold a landmark climate ruling against Shell, which in 2021 ordered the oil and gas company to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions.</p><p>The ruling by The Hague district court ordered Shell to cut its absolute carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels, including those caused by the use of its products.</p><p>The appeals court in The Hague can either uphold or dismiss the entire ruling, or it can modify it, for instance by excluding emissions caused by Shell's customers.</p>.GST fraud? Gujarat cops register case to probe 200 shell companies created by criminals.<p>The ruling comes as the COP29 climate summit takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan.</p><p>Regardless of the outcome, Tuesday's verdict is not expected to be the end of the case, as both sides can launch a further appeal at the Netherlands' Supreme Court.</p><p>Shell has said the ruling would force it to shrink its business without any benefit to the fight against climate change, as customers would simply shift to other suppliers.</p>.<p>In appeal hearings earlier this year, Shell argued that demands for companies to reduce emissions could not be made by courts, but only by states.</p><p>Friends of the Earth Netherlands, which brought the case along with other climate groups on behalf of Dutch citizens in 2019, said it felt supported by a recent European Court of Human Rights ruling, which had confirmed that climate change is a human rights issue.</p><p>In the original ruling, judges said that Shell's climate policy was "not concrete and full of conditions", and that the company risked violating its obligation to reduce emissions.</p><p>The court therefore ordered Shell to reduce its absolute levels of carbon emissions, while Shell's own intensity-based targets could still allow the company to grow its output in theory.</p>.<p>When the case was brought Shell, which is a British company, had a headquarters in The Hague.</p><p>Shell says it is now well on track to meet the court order for its own production, where emissions were 30% below 2016 levels last year. The company has in recent years scaled back operations in renewables, but it plans to invest $10-15 billion between 2023 and 2025 in low-carbon energy.</p><p>Earlier this year it weakened targets for the products it sells, to a 15-20% reduction in net carbon intensity by 2030 relative to 2016, while it retired a previous target to reduce its carbon intensity by 45% by 2035.</p><p>The appeals court in The Hague will start reading its ruling on Tuesday at 0700 GMT.</p>
<p>A Dutch court will decide on Tuesday whether to uphold a landmark climate ruling against Shell, which in 2021 ordered the oil and gas company to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions.</p><p>The ruling by The Hague district court ordered Shell to cut its absolute carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels, including those caused by the use of its products.</p><p>The appeals court in The Hague can either uphold or dismiss the entire ruling, or it can modify it, for instance by excluding emissions caused by Shell's customers.</p>.GST fraud? Gujarat cops register case to probe 200 shell companies created by criminals.<p>The ruling comes as the COP29 climate summit takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan.</p><p>Regardless of the outcome, Tuesday's verdict is not expected to be the end of the case, as both sides can launch a further appeal at the Netherlands' Supreme Court.</p><p>Shell has said the ruling would force it to shrink its business without any benefit to the fight against climate change, as customers would simply shift to other suppliers.</p>.<p>In appeal hearings earlier this year, Shell argued that demands for companies to reduce emissions could not be made by courts, but only by states.</p><p>Friends of the Earth Netherlands, which brought the case along with other climate groups on behalf of Dutch citizens in 2019, said it felt supported by a recent European Court of Human Rights ruling, which had confirmed that climate change is a human rights issue.</p><p>In the original ruling, judges said that Shell's climate policy was "not concrete and full of conditions", and that the company risked violating its obligation to reduce emissions.</p><p>The court therefore ordered Shell to reduce its absolute levels of carbon emissions, while Shell's own intensity-based targets could still allow the company to grow its output in theory.</p>.<p>When the case was brought Shell, which is a British company, had a headquarters in The Hague.</p><p>Shell says it is now well on track to meet the court order for its own production, where emissions were 30% below 2016 levels last year. The company has in recent years scaled back operations in renewables, but it plans to invest $10-15 billion between 2023 and 2025 in low-carbon energy.</p><p>Earlier this year it weakened targets for the products it sells, to a 15-20% reduction in net carbon intensity by 2030 relative to 2016, while it retired a previous target to reduce its carbon intensity by 45% by 2035.</p><p>The appeals court in The Hague will start reading its ruling on Tuesday at 0700 GMT.</p>