Climate Lawsuits Poised to Create ‘Tobacco Moment’ for Big Oil

Litigation will grow to be a tool to force multinational companies and governments to meet their climate commitments, attorneys and advocates said Saturday at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow.

“There is obviously a ripple effect of these cases,” Roger Cox, a Dutch environmental attorney who successfully argued a case against Royal Dutch Shell plc,, said at COP26, the 26th meeting of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

A Dutch court ordered Shell and its global subsidiaries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions 45% below 2019 levels by 2030.

“Everybody starts to believe if it can be ...