Milieudefensie Takes Legal Action Against ING Over Climate Impact

On March 28, 2025, Dutch environmental organization Milieudefensie officially filed a collective lawsuit against ING Group and ING Bank in the Amsterdam court.

The lawsuit considers the responsibility of financiers, in this case ING, in providing financial contributions to industries that contribute to climate change and aims to push ING to significantly cut its emissions.

Milieudefensie, the Dutch branch of Friends of the Earth, argues that ING plays a significant role in financing industries that contribute to climate change. Milieudefensie has requested that ING halve its total emissions by 2030 compared to 2019 levels and stop providing funding to companies involved in new oil and gas projects. Additionally, the environmental group requests that ING require all major corporate clients to present credible climate plans.

Milieudefensie has brought the claim on the principle of “duty of care” and contends that ING's financial support for polluting industries contradicts this responsibility and exacerbates the climate crisis.

ING has acknowledged receipt of the lawsuit but has dismissed the demands as "unrealistic and unreasonable". The bank maintains that it takes climate action seriously and has already implemented measures to reduce its environmental impact, including stating that it has stopped financing new oil and gas fields and plans to phase out coal-powered investments. However, the bank argues that the global economy still relies heavily on fossil fuels, making an immediate transition challenging.

This lawsuit is part of a broader trend of environmental groups using court processes to question the extent to which financial institutions should be required to account for the contributions of their investments to climate change. Milieudefensie has previously brought significant litigation against Shell in 2021 in relation to the credibility of Shell’s climate targets, and while the overall claim was rejected by the Hague Court of Appeal, the Court did include in its ruling a confirmation that corporate actors do have a duty of care under Dutch law to contribute to the mitigation of dangerous climate change by reducing their emissions.

With appreciation to Amineh Farasatmand for her contribution in preparing this blog.