Hearings began Thursday in the first major climate suit of a multinational oil company in France. Judges will decide if oil giant TotalEnergies must curb its production of fossil fuels to keep its emissions in check. Among those following the case are African campaigners now rallying against a controversial pipeline backed by the oil giant.
The suit, brought by a coalition of civil society groups and local authorities, is based on the French duty of vigilance law, which requires large multinationals to prevent serious human rights abuses and environmental harms. This case is the first to apply the law to climate change, according to the plaintiffs.
The groups have argued that Total is legally required to identify risks from its contribution to warming and take steps to reduce its emissions. The company has more fossil fuel projects underway than any other oil major.
Total contends the duty of vigilance law does not apply to climate change. “If the company, which accounts for less than 2 percent of global production, were to shut down, global warming would still continue,” one of its lawyers said during the hearing on Thursday.
Total has already faced legal challenges under the duty of vigilance law for its backing of the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline, or EACOP, which will ship crude oil 900 miles from the Great Lakes region in Uganda to the Tanzanian coast. The company has been implicated in the coercion and intimidation of families living in the path of the pipeline, which threatens to displace more than 100,000 people.
EACOP is a major part of Total’s plan to ramp up production on the African continent, and the project has faced stiff opposition from campaigners in Africa, who are cheering the climate case.
“This case matters because it asks whether TotalEnergies can keep expanding oil and gas with no consequences,” said Balach Bakundane, a community organizer with the EACOP Host Communities Organisation. “If there is to be justice then we need to draw a line in the sand. No more expansion. No more impunity. No more profiteering at our expense.”
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