Iran Press/ Europe: An unprecedented legal battle is being waged against the French energy and petroleum multinational TotalEnergies, in a bid to get the company to acknowledge its responsibility for climate disruption and its trail of disastrous consequences.
According toFrench media, charges were pressed against the French oil group before the Nanterre Judicial Court on Friday, September 22. It targets four serious offenses: failure to fight a disaster, manslaughter, unintentional injury to the integrity of a person, and destruction or damage to the property of others creating a dangering to people.
The groups Darwin Climax Coalitions, Sea Shepherd France, Wild Legal and Stop EACOP-Stop Total filed their action on September 22, saying that TotalEnergies "must no longer continue to knowingly, freely and with impunity fuel climate change", lawyers William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth said.
The groups say that with its East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), TotalEnergies is liable for charges including destruction, damage or deterioration of property belonging to others likely to create a danger to persons, and failing to deal with a disaster.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) in July urged a halt to the project after TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation last year signed a $10 billion deal to develop Ugandan oilfields and ship crude through a 1,445-kilometre (900-mile) pipeline to Tanzania's Indian Ocean port of Tanga.
Earlier, French energy giant TotalEnergies was accused of complicity in war crimes in a complaint lodged by two Ukrainian NGOs with France's National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office. 219
