The oil multinational TotalEnergies has been targeted since December 2021 by an investigation for “misleading commercial practices”, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced to AFP on Thursday, January 26, confirming information from Mediapart (article for subscribers). This investigation was opened by the economic and financial center of the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office following a criminal complaint, in October 2020, from three environmental defense associations. The latter notably accuse the oil giant of degradation of the air, said the prosecution.
The three complainant associations, Wild Legal, Sea Shepherd France and Darwin Climax Coalitions, also point out “the gulf that separates the speeches and the communication strategy of the Total group in climate matters from its practices which consist in investing massively in fossil fuels”, reports Mediapart.
“A first on the legal level”
“It is a first on the judicial level in France that Totalenergies be the subject of a legal investigation for deceptive marketing practices, i.e. here for the greenwashing of the industrial”, report to online media William Bourdon, lawyer of the Paris bar who filed the complaint on behalf of the three associationss.
In April 2022, this group of associations filed a new complaint, accusing TotalEnergies “other practices” originally, according to them, “of an ecocide”, explained the public ministry. Still under study, this new complaint has not, at this stage, led to the opening of an investigation or been joined to the ongoing investigations.
Contacted by AFP, the oil giant defended itself, ensuring that it was carrying out a strategy “concrete (…) to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050”. It evokes “investments”of the “new professions” and an “significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions”. TotalEnergies also claims to have “17 gigawatt of renewable capacity installed worldwide, compared to nearly 0 GW in 2018”.