A Paris court has ruled that French energy giant TotalEnergies is legally responsible for the climate and health risks caused by the fuels it sells, ordering the company to produce a revised environmental risk assessment that includes the emissions generated when its products are burned by end users. The ruling, delivered in a landmark French climate case, stops short of imposing mandatory production cuts but could lay the groundwork for stricter obligations in the future.

The case was brought by the city of Paris alongside several NGOs — including Notre Affaire à Tous, Sherpa, Zéa, and France Nature Environnement — under a 2017 French law known as the duty of vigilance, which requires large companies to ensure their activities do not cause human rights violations or environmental harm. The plaintiffs argued that TotalEnergies, which ranks among the top 20 companies with the largest historical greenhouse gas emissions globally, was failing to align its business with the targets set by the 2015 Paris Agreement. They had sought a court order compelling the company to cut oil production by 37 percent and gas production by 25 percent by 2030, and to halt all new fossil fuel projects.

The court did not go that far. However, it found TotalEnergies' current climate plan to be incomplete because it covers only emissions from the company's own factories and production facilities — what is known as Scope 1 and 2 emissions — while excluding Scope 3 emissions: the far larger volume of greenhouse gases released when customers burn TotalEnergies' oil and gas in car engines, power plants, and heating systems. According to the company's own sustainability figures, customer emissions in 2024 were roughly ten times greater than those from its own operations — 342 megatonnes of CO₂-equivalent compared to 34 megatonnes. The court ruled that an "inherent link" exists between producing fossil fuels and their eventual combustion, and that this downstream pollution constitutes a breach of human rights obligations. TotalEnergies has been given six months to produce a revised plan; the court will reconvene on 21 January 2027, when mandatory emission reductions could still be imposed.

The ruling carries significance well beyond France. Belgian climate lawyers are watching closely, as a similar case — known as the Farmer Case — brought by organic farmer Hugues Falys against TotalEnergies is currently before Belgian courts. A lower court had already delayed its own judgment pending the Paris ruling. TotalEnergies had consistently argued in both cases that it cannot be held responsible for what customers do with the products it sells, a position the Paris court has now directly rejected. The city of Paris has welcomed the decision as "an important ruling in the history of French climate law."

Meanwhile, TotalEnergies faces additional legal pressure over its East African operations. A separate case, scheduled to be heard next year, involves claims from NGOs and Ugandan residents over alleged land rights violations linked to the Tilenga drilling project and the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), a nearly 1,500-kilometre heated pipeline that would run from Uganda to the Tanzanian port of Tanga. Critics have called the project a "carbon bomb," with estimates suggesting it could release 379 million tonnes of climate-heating pollution over its lifetime. TotalEnergies maintains that strict environmental and social safeguards are in place. The company had not publicly responded to the Paris court's ruling at the time of reporting.