A judicial inquiry has been opened for “deceptive marketing practices” in the field of the environment against the French oil and gas group TotalEnergies, which promotes everywhere its ambition of carbon neutrality and defends itself by recalling that it also invests in renewable energies.
The investigation was opened in December 2021 by the economic and financial center of the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office (Hauts-de-Seine), after the criminal complaint, in October 2020, of several associations for the defense of the environment, learned this Thursday, January 26, AFP from a source familiar with the matter, confirmed by the prosecution.
These associations (Wild Legal, Sea Shepherd France and Darwin Climax Coalitions) accuse the oil giant of degrading the air, according to the complaint consulted by Mediapart.
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At this stage, the prosecution is focusing on the potential offense of deceptive marketing practices, which may refer to the group’s communications promoting its climate strategy. It is on this ground that another action was launched, in civil, by three other NGOs including Greenpeace last year.
“No information on the complaint mentioned”
“Greenwashing in the name of sustainable development is sustainable cynicism”retorted William Bourdon, lawyer for environmental associations. “The insincerity of Total’s commitments will necessarily lead to a lawsuit for misleading commercial practices”he told AFP.
This is also hoped by the Greenpeace lawyer involved in the civil action, Clara Gonzales. “Whatever happens at the end of this preliminary investigation, it shows that companies run a growing risk when they have this type of practice”she analyzes for AFP. “When you are an oil or gas company and you communicate at all costs on climate commitments that are not scientifically based in our opinion, the legal response is there. »
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Contacted by AFP, TotalEnergies indicated that it had “no information on the complaint mentioned. And neither the Company nor its leaders have received a request for a hearing on this subject..
“Misleading consumers”
The Paris-based multinational has adopted a carbon neutral ambition in 2050 but still adds “together with society”, that is to say that it conditions this ambition on the climate commitment of the countries, proposing that as long as the world needs oil or gas, it will continue to supply it. And its own documents predict a barely reduced total carbon footprint by 2030, compared to 2015.
She quotes ” investments “of the “new professions” and an “significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions”reduced in Europe by “23% between 2015 and 2021”. TotalEnergies now adds having “17 gigawatts (GW) of renewable capacity (wind, solar, etc.) installed worldwide, compared to nearly 0 GW in 2018”.
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For Wild Legal, TotalEnergies “in its communication displays its objective of carbon neutrality even as the company continues to invest in highly polluting fossil fuels in France and elsewhere”.
“This communication strategy aims to mislead consumers, while for a large majority of them, the environmental policy of a company is a substantial criterion of their purchasing choices”believes the association.
” Ecocide »
An additional complaint, in 2021, mentions the development by 2025 of 400 oil drilling wells in Uganda, the Tilenga project, extended by the construction of a pipeline of more than 1,400 km (Eacop project).
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In April 2022, they again filed a complaint, accusing “other practices” originally according to them “of an ecocide”, the public prosecutor told AFP. Still under study, this complaint has not, at this stage, led to the opening of an investigation or been joined to the investigations in progress.
This is not the first time that TotalEnergies projects have been targeted by the courts. At the end of December, the giant was assigned by six NGOs for its mega oil project in Uganda and Tanzania, under a law which since 2017 imposes on multinationals a “duty of care” on their global activities.
The decision in this case will be handed down on February 28.
At the same time, in Nanterre, the investigation for “deceptive marketing practices” continues.
For Clara Gonzales of Greenpeace, the interest of these new procedures is to give “to the judge the advisability of settling this debate, and of reinforcing the legal framework of the communication of the companies. »
