As Europe grapples with an intense summer marked by extreme climate events, including heatwaves that have overwhelmed hospitals and forced school closures, a significant legal shift has occurred in Paris. On 25 June, the Paris judicial tribunal delivered a ruling regarding a case brought against TotalEnergies by the City of Paris and various environmental groups. The court’s decision effectively challenges the long-standing industry defense that fossil fuel companies are not responsible for the emissions resulting from the use of their products.
While the judgment does not mandate an immediate halt to the company’s fossil fuel expansion, it holds TotalEnergies legally accountable for so-called Scope 3 emissions—those produced when the oil and gas it sells are ultimately burned by consumers. For decades, the industry has argued that it merely produces the fuel, shifting the blame to drivers and households for heating and transportation emissions. The Paris court has dismantled this alibi, finding that the company’s industrial choices, investment strategies, and energy portfolio directly influence these downstream emissions.
This ruling is particularly significant given evidence that the company has long been aware of the climate risks associated with its business. Internal documents dating back to 1971 show that the firm predicted the disruptive effects of fossil fuel combustion, including rising CO2 concentrations and potential sea-level increases. They predicted, with troubling accuracy, that CO₂ concentrations would reach 400 parts per million around 2010 and warned of potential polar ice melt and sea level rise. By the early 1980s, internal assessments acknowledged that global warming was likely irreversible, yet executives at Elf—which later merged with Total—subsequently pursued strategies to block carbon taxation and fund climate skepticism.
The legal victory follows years of campaigning to strip fossil fuel companies of their social legitimacy. Following a 2015 divestment campaign, the City of Paris moved to explore legal avenues against such companies in 2018, leading to the 2019 filing that resulted in this recent decision. The court has ordered TotalEnergies to revise its vigilance plan within six months to account for its Scope 3 emissions.
While the company may argue that its core operations remain largely unchanged, the legal landscape has shifted, allowing for greater scrutiny of whether it is actively preventing the climate risks it creates. As advocates call for political follow-through—such as windfall taxes and an end to fossil fuel subsidies—the ruling stands as a pivotal moment in global climate litigation, emphasizing that the costs of climate breakdown should not be borne by consumers alone.
Europe is struggling through an intense summer of climate breakdown. France’s heatwave shut schools and stretched hospitals stretched past their limits, with so many people dying in their apartments that morgues have run out of space.
Outdoor workers have faced conditions beyond what the human body can safely withstand.
