Wintershall Dea gets cease-and-desist order from green group
German gas company Wintershall Dea confirmed on September 20 that it had received a cease-and-desist declaration earlier this month from environmental group Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) over its climate footprint, but said the NGO had no right to give such an order.
DUH and Greenpeace said on September 3 they would take legal action against Wintershall Dea along with Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler's Mercedes-Benz, if they did not increase efforts to combat climate change. It called for Wintershall Dea to refrain from exploring for more oil and gas from 2026, and the car manufacturers to stop producing vehicles with internal combustion engines by 2030.
Such moves are necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and Germany's own climate targets, the NGOs claimed.
"Wintershall Dea does not have any refineries or service stations. As Europe's leading independent natural gas producer, Wintershall Dea supports the CO2 emission targets the EU has set," company CEO Mario Mehren commented. "We contribute to more climate protection with our natural gas by replacing coal-fired power generation with more climate-friendly natural gas and enabling production of hydrogen from natural gas."
Wintershall Dea aims to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions to net zero by 2030.
Environmental NGOs are taking oil and gas companies to court in an attempt to force them to adopt tougher goals on emissions. These efforts have produced results, with a Dutch court in May ordering Shell to commit to a steeper 45% reduction in its Scope 1, 2 and 3 emission by 2030, using the level in 2019 as a baseline. The Anglo-Dutch major is appealing the ruling.