Paris court orders TotalEnergies to account for customer emissions in its climate plan

A Paris court has ordered TotalEnergies to include emissions generated by customers using its oil and gas products in its climate due-diligence plan, a ruling that could widen the reach of France’s duty of vigilance law.

The decision, issued on June 25, gives the company six months to update its environmental risk assessment and reporting. The court also scheduled a further hearing for January 2027 to review the revised plan.

The case is being closely watched because it appears to be the first French climate ruling to apply the vigilance law to downstream emissions, often called Scope 3 emissions, rather than only to direct operations or supply-chain harms.

What the court ordered

The judges did not order TotalEnergies to cut oil or gas production. They also declined to require a halt to new fossil-fuel projects.

Instead, the ruling focuses on the company’s duty-of-vigilance plan. TotalEnergies must account for customer-use emissions and reflect those climate risks in the due-diligence framework required under French law.

Scope 3 emissions are indirect emissions created when buyers use a company’s products. For an oil and gas producer, those emissions can represent a large share of the overall climate footprint.

That means the court’s order is narrower than the broadest demands made by the plaintiffs, but it still pushes the company to treat downstream emissions as a legal reporting and risk-management issue.

Why the ruling matters

France’s 2017 duty of vigilance law requires large companies to identify and prevent serious human-rights, health and environmental harms linked to their operations and supply chains.

Environmental groups and the City of Paris brought the case arguing that the law should also cover the climate effects of fossil-fuel sales. The court’s ruling appears to accept that climate-related harm can fall within that framework.

That makes the decision significant beyond this case. It may become a reference point for other climate disputes in Europe, especially lawsuits focused on Scope 3 emissions and corporate climate plans.

The ruling also comes as courts and lawmakers face growing pressure to define how far corporate climate responsibility should extend once products leave a company’s direct control.

The case and the arguments

The dispute was brought by environmental groups including Notre Affaire à Tous, Sherpa and France Nature Environnement, along with the City of Paris.

TotalEnergies argued that climate change is a global issue beyond the scope of the vigilance law. The company also said it does not control how customers use the equipment associated with its products.

According to Le Monde, the Paris prosecutor’s office backed TotalEnergies during the proceedings.

The court did not adopt TotalEnergies’ position. But it also stopped short of granting the broader demands from the plaintiffs, including direct production cuts.

What happens next

TotalEnergies now has six months to revise its climate plan and report back to the court.

The January 2027 hearing will be the next formal checkpoint. At that stage, judges can assess whether the updated plan satisfies the ruling and whether further orders or sanctions are needed.

The company’s next steps will also be watched for any appeal or a more detailed compliance response.

For climate litigants, the case is an important test of whether France’s vigilance law can be used to push companies to account for emissions generated when their fossil fuels are burned.

The ruling leaves one of the central questions in climate liability unresolved: how far legal responsibility extends for emissions that occur after a product has been sold.