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Paul Mougeolle and Anne Stevignon helped craft a landmark climate lawsuit brought by French environmental nonprofit Notre Affaire à Tous and a handful of other NGOs against TotalEnergies. On June 25, a Paris court ruled that the oil and gas multinational violated its legal duty of vigilance by failing to account for emissions from the use of its products, known as Scope 3 emissions, and ordered it to strengthen its vigilance plan while TotalEnergies appeals the decision.
Corporate Transition Plans and Legal Frameworks
According to Paul Mougeolle, companies must adopt and implement effective climate transition plans to mitigate serious climate-related harm and keep Paris Agreement objectives within reach. These plans require corporate actors to demonstrate their best efforts to reduce emissions quickly and deeply, which includes transitioning away from fossil fuels.
Anne Stévignon stated that governments need to transform the fossil fuel phase-out from a political promise into an enforceable legal framework. This requires ending the expansion of fossil fuel production, setting clear transition requirements for companies and financial institutions, and ensuring climate commitments are enforceable, moving past years of voluntary pledges into binding rules.
Civil Society Support and Personal Sustainability
Stévignon highlighted independent and well-funded climate civil society as an underfunded solution, noting that climate NGOs investigate, produce expertise, challenge misleading claims, bring court cases, and hold powerful entities accountable while facing severe funding pressures.
For his personal sustainability effort in the next year, Mougeolle aims to reach out to people who do not share his views and hopes environmental NGOs will do the same to combat societal polarization on climate change. He emphasized restoring dialogue to look for common ground, noting how scientific consensus from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change informs the Paris goals and various climate cases.
Sources of Hope and Persistence
Mougeolle derives hope from courts and the legal community increasingly recognizing that traditional legal principles can adapt to global warming challenges, particularly through recent climate litigation and the International Court of Justice’s 2025 advisory opinion on states’ obligations.
Stévignon noted that persistence matters more than hope in the climate movement, observing over the past decade how ideas once dismissed as legally impossible enter courtrooms and become mainstream legal reasoning, such as the French court ruling ordering TotalEnergies to address Scope 3 emissions.
