It is a pretty old town, nestled along a river: Bize-Minervois, a little over 1,000 inhabitants, in the Aude. A small paradise, except that very regularly, the village suffers from serious floods. The mayor no longer counts the natural disaster decrees he had to take, his constituents can no longer restore their homes.
For them, as for a dozen other French communities and some associations, this damage has a person in charge: the Total group that they have decided to take to court for “climate inaction”. They accuse the French oil company of having contributed to global warming and want to force it to act.
On the dock, oil companies say they are scapegoats for a global problem
Thus, all over the world, the oil giants are found on the dock. They contest and refuse to be the scapegoats for a problem that they consider much more global.
From the United States to the Netherlands via France, “Complément d’études” looked into these trials. Do oil tankers have to pay for the floods, droughts and fires that are raging all over the planet? Thanks to exclusive documents and unpublished testimonies, “Complément d’Investigation” goes back up the thread of their responsibilities.
An investigation by Sandrine Feydel, Valérie Lucas and Michel Pignard broadcast in “Complément d’études” on October 21, 2021.
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– The academic article by Christophe Bonneuil, Pierre-Louis Choquet and Benjamin Franta: “Early warnings and emerging accountability: Total’s responses to global warming, 1971–2021” (in English).
– The Film “A Climate of Concern”, Shell, 1991.
– The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association (PCFFA) complaint against several tankers.
– The study by Dr. Naomi Oreskes, Harvard science historian (with Geoffrey Supran).
Non-exhaustive list.