Shell is not obliged to dramatically reduce its planet-heating pollution by 2030, a Dutch appeals court ruled Tuesday, delivering a blow to efforts by environmental activists to push energy companies away from fossil fuels.

The ruling — handed down just as annual climate talks take place at COP29 in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku — overturns a previous verdict that imposed steep carbon emissions reductions on the British oil and gas giant.

“We are pleased with the court’s decision, which we believe is the right one for the global energy transition, the Netherlands and our company,” Shell (SHEL) CEO Wael Sawan said in a statement.

Shell had appealed the previous ruling, handed down in 2021, which ordered the company to slash its CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030 from 2019 levels. That included emissions from its own operations and from the energy products it sells.

While The Hague Court of Appeal ruled that Shell is obliged to limit its CO2 emissions — in order to protect the planet from dangerous climate change — it said there is insufficient agreement in climate science on a specific reduction percentage that an individual company such as Shell should adhere to. As such, it dismissed the previous ruling.

Tuesday’s ruling noted that Shell is already working to reduce emissions from its own operations — so-called scope 1 and 2 emissions — and that forcing the company to reduce the far greater emissions caused by the use of its products, known as scope 3 emissions, would not be effective.

“A court ruling would not reduce overall customer demand for products such as petrol (gasoline) and diesel for cars, or for (natural) gas to heat and power homes and businesses,” Shell said.

Friends of the Earth Netherlands, an environmental campaigning group that brought the case against Shell, expressed disappointment with the outcome.

“This hurts,” said director Donald Pols. At the same time, he highlighted several positives from the ruling.

“The court affirmed that companies… are responsible for the human rights violations resulting from climate change,” he told CNN. “The judge also stated that the more than 800 fossil fuel projects (in Shell’s pipeline) are contradictory to its responsibility to act in accordance with human rights principles. These are all very important legal principles that… can be used in future court cases.”

Pols said Friends of the Earth Netherlands would study the ruling before deciding whether to launch an appeal at the Supreme Court of the Netherlands.

Joshua Sherrard-Bewhay, an analyst at investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown, said Shell’s successful appeal “signals to high emitters that they are safe for now from the jurisdiction of international frameworks,” citing the Paris Agreement, which binds nearly all countries to drastically cut carbon pollution, as one example.