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Why does the fight for justice take so long? Why is it so difficult to hold Big Oil to account? Why does it take years even decades to drag oil executives, kicking and screaming, into a court-room?

Despite our climate emergency and the massive demand reduction caused by COVID-19, American oil executives say it would be "folly" for them to switch to renewables.

Divesting from fossil fuels and ending environmental racism goes hand-in-hand with defunding the police in the fight for racial justice and reinvestment in Black and Brown communities.

For years Big Oil has repeated the dirty tactics of Big Tobacco. And once again it has been found doing so again.

Shell, a company often vilified for being complicit in human rights abuses in Nigeria, of rampant pollution and ignoring the risks of climate change for decades, belatedly wants us to believe it is central to the climate fight.

At the end of the day, Shell still cares more about its shareholders than it does about society. It cares more about profit than it does people. It cares more about cash than a safe climate.

In an historic judgement yesterday, a Dutch court issued an interim ruling that it does have jurisdiction to hear the legal case bought by four widows of the Ogoni 9, who were murdered by the Nigerian military back in 1995.

Just as the people of the Niger Delta have been demanding justice from Shell for decades, many of us have been demanding climate justice for decades too. But the hour glass has nearly run dry. The time to act is now. We cannot allow another COP to pass with just empty promises.

Remembering past struggles against oil: Ida Tarbell, Mohammed Mosaddegh and Ken Saro-Wiwa.

Of course Shell knew about climate change too. As Ken Saro-Wiwa once noted, instead of acting responsibly, Shell chose to inflict "genocide" against the people of the Niger Delta, instead. It has continued that path ever since, by continuing to burn oil and gas. And the rising waters of the Niger Delta are part of that crime.