justice cancels TotalEnergies’ procedure against Greenpeace, which accuses it of underestimating its carbon footprint

TotalEnergies has so far failed to convict Greenpeace, which accuses it of underestimating its carbon footprint. On Thursday March 28, justice ruled in favor of the environmental NGO which had requested the annulment of the proceedings brought by the major for “spreading false and misleading information”by canceling the assignment of TotalEnergies.

The judge also ordered TotalEnergies to pay Greenpeace and Factor-X the sum of 15,000 euros in legal costs. He has fifteen days to appeal from the notification of the decision. TotalEnergies told AFP it would “act of the judge’s decision” of the Paris judicial court and examine “the follow-up” in its first lawsuit filed in France against the environmental association.

The debate on TotalEnergies’ “real” carbon footprint will therefore not open, unless TotalEnergies appeals and wins. In this case, the NGO and the group could find themselves in court in an unprecedented debate on the method of accounting for the group’s greenhouse gas emissions. Greenpeace calculated in a report at the end of 2022 that the group’s annual emissions were four times greater than what it reported, i.e. 1.6 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent, instead of the 455 million declared. Figures disputed by TotalEnergies.

The group is the target of two complaints from associations which accuse it of “deceptive commercial practices” in the presentation of its climate policy, one in civil proceedings in Paris and one in criminal proceedings which led to the opening of an investigation by the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office.