Cities and local authorities are at the forefront of the many challenges of adapting to and mitigating the impacts of climate change...

Local authorities are also forced to bear the costs of climate inaction resulting from the companies that emit the most greenhouse gases, led by TotalEnergies. In partnership with the NGOs behind the litigation against TotalEnergies (formerly Total), notably Notre Affaire À Tous, the cities of New York, Paris and Poitiers have joined the coalition of local authorities and associations aiming to raise the oil and gas major's climate ambitions...

Considering its impact on climate change, TotalEnergies is particularly responsible for the current climate crisis. The company is part of the top 20 fossil fuel multinational companies which have directly or indirectly emitted the most greenhouse gas emission (GES) since 1965. To this day, TotalEnergies remains linked to approximately 1% of worldwide GES emissions, equivalent to France’s annual emissions...

Nearly four years after Total and its CEO Patrick Pouyanné were first challenged by an unprecedented coalition of associations and local authorities, this litigation, now supported by new local authorities and NGOs, aims to have the Court order Total to take the necessary measures to drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and align itself with the objectives of the Paris Agreement, in accordance with the French law of March 27, 2017 on the duty of care of parent companies, similar to the Shell decision in the Netherlands...

It is now 16 local authorities and 6 NGOs now demand that the French court recognise the liability of TotalEnergies in regards to the climate crisis, as well as order the company to set a GES emissions trajectory that is compatible with global climate objectives...