Signal TotalEnergies appeals French ruling on customer-emissions climate reporting obligations

Summary

TotalEnergies filed an appeal on July 27, 2026 against a Paris court ruling that ordered the company to report on and mitigate climate risks arising from emissions generated by customers using its oil and gas products. The original June 2026 ruling required the company to disclose climate risks linked to its products and set out mitigation plans, rejecting Total's argument that its reporting obligations should be limited in scope, and applying France's 2017 corporate duty-of-vigilance law to climate change for the first time in this way. In its appeal to the Paris Court of Appeal, TotalEnergies argues that climate change falls outside the scope of the vigilance law and that companies cannot be held responsible for how customers use their products, also noting that the EU's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive does not extend corporate responsibility to customer activities. The case was originally filed in 2020 by NGOs including SHERPA and Notre Affaire à Tous along with the City of Paris, and is viewed as a potential precedent for EU-wide reporting rules taking effect in 2028.