Suit vs TotalEnergies Directors, Investors Seeks Climate Criminal Liability

Three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have joined forces with climate survivors to sue TotalEnergies SE’s board of directors and main shareholders before a Paris court, saying their decisions led to climate-induced human and environmental tolls.

The case seeking criminal liability was filed by France-based Bloom and Santé Planétaire, Mexico-based Nuestro Futuro and eight survivors of climate-driven natural disasters from Australia, Belgium, France, Greece, Pakistan, the Philippines and Zimbabwe, according to a Bloom statement.

Filed this week ahead of the French energy giant’s yearly general meeting on Friday, “this legal action could set a precedent in the history of climate litigation as it opens the way to holding fossil fuel producers and shareholders responsible before criminal courts for the chaos caused by climate change”, Bloom said.  

“TotalEnergies, the world’s sixth biggest carbon major, its board of directors and its main shareholders are being sued for deliberately endangering the lives of others, involuntary manslaughter, neglecting to address a disaster, and damaging biodiversity.

“Each offense is punishable by at least one year of imprisonment and a fine”.

The plaintiffs have given the prosecutor the discretion to determine the individuals to bring to trial. However, they have named as definite defendants chief executive Patrick Pouyanne and investors BlackRock Inc. and Norway’s central bank, “who voted in favor of climate strategies incompatible with limiting global warming to 2°C and against resolutions aiming at aligning the Group’s climate strategy with the Paris Agreement”.

TotalEnergies, BlackRock and Norges Bank have yet to reply to requests for comment emailed by Rigzone.

Bloom added, “Rising sea levels and submerged coastlines, deadly heat waves, mega-fires, devastating hurricanes, floods and landslides: the number of reported weather-related disasters has multiplied by five over the past 50 years, impacting the lives of the eight plaintiffs from Australia, Zimbabwe, France, Belgium, the Philippines, Greece and Pakistan as well as that of million other human beings and billions of animals”.

“The disasters that ravaged their lives, such as the 2019 Australian bushfires, the 2021 European floods, and the 2022 Pakistan floods, have undergone scientific attribution studies, which concluded that climate change made each of them stronger and more likely to occur”, it said.

“Although the International Energy Agency has recommended to halt all new fossil fuel projects since 2021 to keep to a 1.5°C pathway, TotalEnergies has kept opening oil and gas sites across the planet. It has even become the second most expansionist fossil fuel company in the world”.

The prosecutor has three months to decide whether to launch a judicial probe, Bloom said. If dismissed, the plaintiffs plan to lodge the complaint before an investigating judge.

This Friday TotalEnergies’ stockholders will vote on whether to renew Pouyanne’s mandate, as confirmed by TotalEnergies in a statement March 14.

On April 26 it said its board had rejected a proposal by a group of investors seeking to separate the roles of board chair and chief executive. Switzerland-based Ethos Foundation and 19 other international investors had requested that TotalEnergies include an advisory vote at the annual meeting on the separation of the roles, which it said is a setup that would be more conducive to negotiations on the company’s climate strategy.

“The separation of functions could improve dialogue with the board of directors on climate and transition issues and ensure a better balance of power at a time when many investors are of the opinion that TotalEnergies' transition strategy is not ambitious enough”, Ethos said in a statement April 18.

Ethos and several co-filers have sought court intervention to push for the advisory vote after TotalEnergies’ rejection.

TotalEnergies has set goals of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions in the Scopes 1 and 2 categories—emissions from company activities and input energy—by 2050. For Scope 3, or emissions from the use of its products, TotalEnergies has set a target of eliminating the equivalent of 100 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year through carbon capture, storage and utilization.

To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com