Environmental campaign group Milieudefensie is heading to the Supreme Court in its efforts to force Shell to almost halve its CO2 emissions.

Last November, appeal court judges in The Hague overturned a lower court decision requiring the energy giant to act to meet a specific target. Now, after lengthy consideration, Milieudefensie has decided to proceed with a further appeal.

“The [November] ruling forces big polluters like Shell to go green more quickly,” the campaign group said. “The judge stated that protection against dangerous climate change is a human right and that Shell has a duty to combat dangerous climate change.”

However, the agency said the court did not set a target, and this is essential to slowing down the climate crisis. “If the judge sets a concrete goal, we can ensure that Shell truly takes action.”

A lower court ruled in 2021 that the company’s carbon emissions pose a ‘very serious threat’ to residents of the Netherlands and that the company has an ‘individual responsibility’ to reduce them.

The decision would have forced Shell to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 45% net by the end of 2030, compared with 2019.

However, in November, the appeal court found that while protecting people from the effects of climate change is a human right, forcing Shell to cut its emissions would not mitigate the global problem.

The original case helped pave the way for a string of other cases in which industry and government have faced legal action for endangering the public.