2024-01-19 17:39:02
Milieudefensie starts a lawsuit against ING. The organization believes that the bank should not cooperate with polluting companies and should reduce CO2 emissions. Milieudefensie previously won a historic climate case against Shell. “The backers of the climate crisis are just as responsible.”
The case follows one research that Milieudefensie had it carried out by independent research agency SEO. That research shows that seven large financial institutions, including ING Group, ABN AMRO and Rabobank, are jointly responsible for the emissions of 158 megatons of greenhouse gases. That figure comes from the reports of the companies themselves. 158 megatons is equal to the total emissions of the Netherlands in 2022.
According to the study, ING is responsible for emissions of 61 megatons. Milieudefensie believes that ING, as the largest bank in the Netherlands, should make more efforts to combat climate change. That is why the environmental organization is now trying to enforce through the courts that the company ends cooperation with polluting companies and halves its emissions in 2030 compared to 2019. According to Milieudefensie, this is in line with the Paris agreement.
That agreement stipulates that countries must make efforts to keep warming well below 2 degrees and preferably below 1.5 degrees. It was recently announced that the Earth has already warmed by almost 1.5 degrees.
Milieudefensie won a historic climate case against Shell in 2019
It is not the first time that Milieudefensie has taken legal action against a company. The organization became world news when it won a historic case against Shell in 2021. For the first time, an oil company was held liable for climate change. Milieudefensie started the case together with a number of other organizations and seventeen thousand citizens to ensure that Shell would act in accordance with the Paris Agreement.
According to Milieudefensie, Shell’s policy was not compatible with those objectives. The judge agreed with the organization and ruled that Shell’s sustainability policy is not sufficiently concrete. The ruling requires the oil giant to emit 45 percent less CO2 in 2030 than in 2019. Shell appealed the case.
Donald Pols, the director of Milieudefensie, says about ING: “The backers of the climate crisis are just as responsible for dangerous climate change as Shell. Because whether you drill for oil yourself or pay for the drill: in both cases you are responsible for the climate crisis.”
Lawsuit sends a signal to the business community
Whether the judge rules in favor of Milieudefensie or not, the ruling in this case could set the tone for similar cases in the Netherlands and abroad, says Professor of International Law Marcel Brus (University of Groningen).
“It also sends a signal to shareholders, consumers and policymakers: these companies play a serious role in the debate about who should take action and what the role of the business community is,” says the professor.
Brus does think that it is more difficult to hold financial institutions liable than the fossil industry. “They are one step further away from the activities that cause damage to the climate,” says the professor. “This lawsuit can provide more clarity about that.” The case is expected to take years to resolve.
ING responds to the lawsuit that the global economy is still largely dependent on fossil fuels and that they meet that demand, in addition to investing in sustainable projects. “We aim to play a role in the social and low-carbon transformation needed for a sustainable future.” The bank wants to emit net zero by 2050.
ING announced in December that it wanted to stop financing new fossil projects in 2040. But according to Milieudefensie, that is fifteen years too late.
Employers’ organization VNO-NCW believes that climate control should lie with politicians, and not with the courts. “An Anglo-Saxon culture of all kinds of lawsuits does not benefit anyone,” the organization responds. “Certainly not if we really want to be successful for the climate. This requires intensive cooperation between government, companies, trade unions, NGOs and scientists.”
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