TotalEnergies plans to appeal a French court ruling ordering it to adapt its business strategy to meet climate targets

TotalEnergies, the French integrated energy company, has announced it plans to appeal a French court decision that ordered it to adapt its business strategy to comply with climate change obligations. The ruling, reported by Reuters today, represents a further escalation in climate litigation against major oil and gas companies in Europe, where courts have increasingly been asked to enforce obligations derived from international climate commitments against private actors. The judgment was handed down by the Paris Judicial Court on 25 June 2026 under France's 2017 duty of vigilance law, which requires large French companies to identify and prevent serious risks arising from their activities. The court held that climate risks fall within the scope of that law and that TotalEnergies has leverage over the Scope 3 emissions produced when customers burn its fuels, ordering the company to submit an updated vigilance plan for the court's review within six months. It stopped short of ordering specific operational measures such as limiting overseas exploration and production, and imposed no binding emissions reduction target. The company's decision to appeal signals that it contests both the legal basis for such an order and, potentially, the court's jurisdiction to direct corporate strategy of this kind. This follows a line of European climate cases brought against both governments and corporates, including the landmark Dutch Urgenda decision and subsequent Shell litigation in The Hague, which produced a 2021 first-instance order requiring Shell to cut its group emissions by 45% by 2030, an order the Hague Court of Appeal overturned in November 2024. France has its own domestic climate litigation framework, and cases against major emitters have been progressing through French courts for several years. The appeal means the ruling will not take immediate legal effect, and the litigation will continue into the French appellate system. No legal advisers to either side are named in the sourced reporting.