CIVICUS discusses a landmark court ruling halting oil and gas exploration off South Africa’s coast with members of The Green Connection, one of the two civil society organisations that led the legal challenge.
The Green Connection and Natural Justice successfully challenged a major offshore oil and gas project by Shell and TotalEnergies off South Africa’s southwest coast. The Western Cape High Court ruled that environmental impact assessments were deeply flawed, particularly in their failure to assess impacts on small-scale fishers and coastal communities. The ruling means no exploration can proceed until new, comprehensive and inclusive studies are completed. The case offers yet another example of civil society using climate litigation to hold governments and companies to account.
