Three NGOs and eight people from around the world filed a complaint on Tuesday in Paris against the French oil giant TotalEnergies, its managers and shareholders, accused of involuntary homicide or attacks on biodiversity (AFP/Archives/Sameer Al-DOUMY)
Three NGOs and eight people from around the world filed a complaint on Tuesday in Paris against the French oil giant TotalEnergies, its managers and shareholders, accused of involuntary homicide or attacks on biodiversity.
Contacted by AFP, TotalEnergies did not immediately respond.
The plaintiffs, accompanied by the NGOs Bloom, Alliance Santé Planétaire and Nuestro Futuro, want to criminally indict the oil group and its highest representatives “for their contribution to climate change and its fatal impact on human and non-human lives”. ‘after a press kit sent to AFP.
Three days before TotalEnergies’ annual general meeting, scheduled for Friday afternoon in La Défense, their simple complaint was filed Tuesday around 9:30 a.m. at the Paris judicial court, which has a public health and environment department.
This procedure targets shareholders of TotalEnergies, such as the BlackRock group and the central bank of Norway Norges Bank, the board of directors of the oil group, its CEO, Mr. Patrick Pouyanné, “with the aim of recognizing the deadly consequences of their decisions, their stubbornness in voting for fossil projects which threaten the stability of the climate and therefore of all living things”, declared Claire Nouvian, founding director of the NGO Bloom, specializing in oceans, which coordinates and finances criminal action.
In detail, the document of almost 100 pages, the result of “two years” of work, targets two other offenses: endangering others or abstaining from fighting a disaster.
“We expect the prosecutor to analyze this complaint and to open a preliminary investigation at the very least, or even to refer it directly to an investigating judge so that investigations can be carried out and responsibilities identified,” indicated Mr. François Lafforgue, who represents the plaintiffs.
“We hope that the judges will simply save the world,” smiled Ms. Nouvian.
TotalEnergies Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanné speaks during a session of the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha, May 15, 2024 (AFP/Archives/KARIM JAAFAR)
The complaint is co-signed by eight people presented as survivors and victims of climate change from France, Pakistan, Greece, Belgium, Zimbabwe, Australia, Philippines, who have been affected by recent cataclysms, such as the devastating floods in Pakistan in 2022, storm Alex in France in 2020 or cyclone Idai in Zimbabwe.
In Belgium, one of them, Benjamin Van Bunderen Robberechts, now aged 17, “risked his life” in vain in the summer of 2021 to save his friend Rosa, then aged 15 and who died under her eyes, washed away by record floods in northern Europe.
Present on Tuesday in Paris, the man who is now an environmental activist said he was “there to demand justice” against those “who choose profit rather than human lives and the climate”.
– “Climate skeptic” –
In a press kit, the plaintiffs assert that “TotalEnergies has been aware of the impact of its activities since at least 1971”, but has since “followed a climate-skeptical line in order to (…) protect its growing investments in fossil fuels”.
In this case, oil and gas, the emissions from their combustion warming the planet’s temperatures.
Claire Nouvian, founding director of the NGO Bloom, specializing in oceans, which coordinates and finances criminal action, photographed in Paris on April 23, 2019 (AFP/Archives/JOEL SAGET)
The plaintiffs recall statements from August by Patrick Pouyanné, saying he was “taking responsibility” for his “hydrocarbon pillar”, in view of the demand. “I respect the opinion of scientists, the problem is that there is real life.”
Why only target TotalEnergies? The group “is one of the first” targeted, but other procedures “are being developed” elsewhere concerning its competitors, assured Hadrien Goux, fossil fuels campaign manager at Bloom.
In addition to this procedure, TotalEnergies is subject to several legal actions, criminal or civil, in Paris or Nanterre in particular, some of which were rejected, concerning climatic, environmental and social issues. These range from accusations of “climaticide” to those of “greenwashing”, including human rights abuses.
The group, whose direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions represent around 1% of global emissions according to the plaintiffs, claims to aim for carbon neutrality in 2050, one of the conditions according to climate experts to maintain the the most demanding objective of the 2015 Paris agreement to remain below 1.5°C.
But its methods of accounting for its emissions in this area are contested by environmental activists.
© 2024 AFP
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