French climate lawsuit over corporate emissions signals the next global legal fight

A recent decision by a French court requires a major European oil and gas company to report not only its own climate-warming emissions and those of its contractors but also those of its customers, who burn the oil and petroleum products the company sells. The court’s ruling against TotalEnergies, under a French law passed in 2017, expands a growing front in the global legal fight against climate change. That movement seeks court rulings to hold corporations liable for their emissions and the…