A French court has begun hearing a lawsuit against oil and gas giant TotalEnergies over its growing portfolio of fossil fuel projects worldwide. The case being heard before the Paris Court of Justice was brought by a coalition of 14 French cities, including Paris, and five civil society organizations.
They assert that TotalEnergies must take action to align its activities with the 1.5°C (2.7°F) target of the Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty adopted at the COP21 U.N. climate summit in Paris in 2015, to avoid the worst outcomes of climate change.
The suit targets TotalEnergies because the company is linked to the largest number of new fossil fuel projects worldwide, including 30 so-called carbon bombs — projects whose emissions threaten global efforts to keep warming within the 1.5°C target.
A proposed liquefied natural gas project in Papua New Guinea, for instance, would contribute more than 220 million metric tons of CO2 emissions over its lifetime, experts say.
“Total continues to develop new oil and gas projects all over the world. This is clearly incompatible with the Paris Agreement and with the findings of the IPCC reports, as well as those of the International Energy Agency, which call for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions,” Justine Ripoll, campaign manager at Notre Affaire à Tous, one of the organizations that brought the lawsuit, told Mongabay by phone.
Other TotalEnergies projects in Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique aren’t targeted in the lawsuit as they’re considered already too advanced.
“What we are specifically asking the judges is that Total put an end to oil and gas projects that have not yet reached the first investment decision stage. So this does not concern all fossil projects, but rather those where Total is either still exploring for oil and gas or has not yet signed an investment contract,” Ripoll said.
In a written response to Mongabay a representative with TotalEnergies said, “Trying to prevent TotalEnergies from producing oil and gas still used today in the global energy system makes no sense: oil and gas production naturally declines by 6 to 7% per year without investment (IEA report, September 2025), while at the same time demand for these energies is still increasing.”
The lawsuit is based on France’s corporate duty of vigilance law. Adopted in 2017, the law requires that large French companies must address impacts of their activities that could result in harm to the environment or human rights. The law also applies to their subsidiaries, subcontractors and suppliers. TotalEnergies is among the 20 largest historical emitters of greenhouse gases.
“There are clearly political considerations that make our request very ambitious but we hope there will be enough evidence to convince the judges,” Ripoll said.
The court is expected to deliver its decision on June 25.
Banner image: Flaring at the Djeno oil terminal, operated by TotalEnergies, in the Republic of Congo. Image by Elodie Toto/Mongabay.
