While the French state is sued on multiple sides for his environmental inaction, more and more cities are protecting themselves once morest such lawsuits, while increasing the pressure on the main culprits of global warming. This is how the City of Paris decided to take legal action once morest one of the biggest French polluters, the company TotalEnergiesfor “breach of its duty of vigilance in climate matters”, as allowed by a law of 2017.
Total is one of the top 20 fossil fuel companies that have directly and indirectly emitted the most greenhouse gases since 1965. Today, the company remains the source of nearly 1% of global GHG emissions, i.e. the equivalent of France’s annual emissions. And above all, contrary to the smiling communication of the multinational, which has a carbon neutrality target for 2050Total still devotes nearly 80% of its investments to the development of fossil fuels, which still represent 90% of its activity.
“Total must respect the Paris Agreement”
Total’s activities have a direct impact on Parisians, with large cities being particularly vulnerable to global warming, with the presence of numerous heat islands. In Paris, “the summer of 2003 [marquée par une canicule meurtrière] will soon become the norm. We can no longer rule out a heat peak at 50 degrees”, explains Dan Lert, the deputy for the ecological transition of the City of Paris, joined by 20 Minutes.
“The effects of climate change have an exorbitant cost for the city and for Parisians, adds Dan Lert. We have invested 10 billion euros since 2014 in ecological transition and 1 billion for energy transition. The cost of a ten-year flood is estimated between 3 and 30 billion euros. However, the risk of a ten-year flood has increased by 20%, as a result of global warming. All our efforts will be in vain if the real leaders do not change. We must name those responsible for the climate peril. Total must respect the Paris Agreement. The IPCC says that oil exploitation must be stopped, but Total continues to invest in climate bombs. The purpose of this appeal is to confront TotalEnergies with its contradictions and to compel the leading French polluter to reduce its emissions. »
Contacted by 20 Minutes, the oil company states that it “regrets the litigation initiated” and “considers that its concrete and massive commitment to renewable energies and electricity provides a much more effective response to the climate issue than litigation”. The group adds that it is behind the initiative in Paris of a network of charging stations powered by 100% renewable electricity and is working to convert the fleet of river boats to switch them to electric motors.
“Dilatory maneuvers”
Paris is not the only city to assign Total. New York and Poitiers joined her on Wednesday. Before that, 13 local authorities had lodged a complaint in 2020 once morest the multinational, including Grenoble, Bayonne, the eastern agglomeration together which brings together nine municipalities in Seine-Saint-Denis or the Center-Val-de-Loire region. In 2019, the associations Notre affaires à tous, Sherpa, Eco-Maires, and ZEA were pioneers, soon to be joined by France Nature Environnement.
This Wednesday, September 21, the stakeholders simply presented the new partners to the judge, and Total responded by sending 70 pages of proceedings, which will be examined by the judge at best in March 2023. “We are recovering from six months of delaying maneuvers” , deplores Jérémie Suissa, general manager of Our business to all.
The company had already obtained a long delay by requesting that it be the commercial court which examines the file rather than the judicial court. Request rejected… After three years of proceedings. Once all the appeals have been examined, the oil giant will still have the possibility of appealing, which probably postpones the final decision to a few years later…
The state, on the other hand, was sentenced in August 2021 to pay 10 million euros for not having sufficiently strengthened its system once morest pollution, a decision then relating to the first half of 2021. Assigned for the following two semesters, until July 2022, France risks having to pay a sum record of 20 million euros in penalty, according to the opinion of the public rapporteur of the Council of State, made public Monday, September 20.
Edit of September 22 : We added the reaction of TotalEnergies.
