Greenpeace and ReCommon sue Eni for its emissions:it is the first case of climate litigation in Italy

The company's defense:"We will demonstrate the groundlessness of the accusations and the correctness of our actions"

The first was presented today civil case in Italy against a company for climate reasons.The subject of the action is the Eni group, an energy leader, while those filing the summons are Greenpeace Italia, ReCommon and twelve private Italian citizens, who will ask the Court of Rome «to ascertain the damage and violation of their human rights to life, health and undisturbed family life".The request of environmentalist associations is twofold:on the one hand, request the assessment of the environmental and climate damage to which Eni has contributed in recent decades;on the other, push the company to adopt a new industrial strategy in line with the climate objectives established at European level.The date of the first hearing could be November 30th.

The accusations against the six-legged dog

According to Greenpeace and ReCommon, Eni's management in recent years would be in open violation of the Paris Agreement, also ratified by Italy, which commits countries to reduce emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.In reality, the case presented to the Court of Rome is not only directed at Eni, but also at the Ministry of Economy and Finance and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, both shareholders of the company.The two environmental associations maintain that "Eni's current decarbonisation strategy is clearly in violation of the commitments made at international level by the Italian government and the company itself".Not only that:the proponents of the lawsuit consider it "unacceptable" that Eni, even in the face of the record extra profits achieved in 2022 in the midst of the energy crisis, "continues to invest in the expansion of its fossil fuel business, to the detriment of the climate and local communities which throughout the world suffers the impacts of global warming."

What are "climate disputes"

The campaign with which Greenpeace and ReCommon promote the legal initiative against Eni has been renamed "The just cause".This is the first Italian example of climate litigation, in which a group of citizens or associations sues a private company.Climate disputes are becoming an increasingly relevant phenomenon worldwide.Greenpeace estimates speak of over 2 thousand legal actions filed from 2015 to today.One of those that has received the most medical attention is undoubtedly the legal action brought in the Netherlands against Shell by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and over 17 thousand citizens.In May 2021, a court in the Netherlands ruled - at first instance - that the British oil company is responsible for damaging the planet's climate and that, for this reason, it must make a concrete commitment to reducing emissions and reviewing its industrial strategy .

Eni's defense

The response from the company led by Claudio Descalzi was not long in coming.«Eni will demonstrate in Court the groundlessness of the action taken and, as necessary, the correctness of its actions and its transformation and decarbonisation strategy, which brings together and balances the essential objectives of sustainability, energy security and the country's competitiveness", explained a company spokesperson a few hours after the press conference organized by ReCommon and Greenpeace.Not only that:the six-legged dog is also threatening legal action of its own.«Eni – adds the spokesperson – in turn reserves the right to evaluate the appropriate legal actions to protect its reputation with respect to the repeated defamatory actions carried out by ReCommon, starting from the role that the association has tried to carve out for itself in the context of the Opl245 legal case, which ended with the total non-existence of the accusations and reputational damage to the company and its people".The legal case to which Eni refers is the case for alleged bribes that Eni paid to the Algerian Minister of Energy in exchange for concessions for the exploitation of oil fields in the country.A trial that ended at the beginning of 2020 with the acquittal of all the accused "because the fact does not exist".