ENI sued by Greenpeace and ReCommon:“He knew about the causes of climate change but continued to burn fossil fuels.”The first 'climate' cause in Italy

The weekly round-up on the climate crisis and data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

Is called "The Just Cause”.It is the campaign that promotes the legal initiative that ReCommon and Greenpeace and twelve Italian citizens - coming from areas already affected by the impacts of climate change, such as coastal erosion due to rising sea levels, drought, melting glaciers – have filed against ENI, the first of its kind against a private company in Italy.The two organizations and the citizens involved they filed a civil lawsuit against the energy company "for the damages suffered and future, both financial and otherwise, resulting from climate change to which ENI has significantly contributed with its conduct in recent decades, despite being aware of it".

In short, according to ReCommon and Greenpeace, although ENI has been aware since 1970 that the combustion of fossil fuels is the main cause of climate change and the "catastrophic" risks of burning its products, the energy company has used "lobbying and greenwashing" strategies ” to minimize the risks arising from its business model and activities.

For this reason, the two organizations and the citizens who presented the case "will ask the Court of Rome to ascertain the damage and violation of human rights to life, health and undisturbed family life", and that ENI "is obliged to review its industrial strategy to reduce emissions from its activities by at least 45% by 2030 compared to 2020 levels, as indicated by the international scientific community to keep the average increase in global temperature within 1.5°C according to the dictated by the Paris Climate Agreement”.

The legal action also involves the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the development bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti for "the influence they exercise on ENI", we read in the summons.Together, they hold a third of the Italian government's stake in ENI.

“The urgency to act against the climate crisis pushed us to file Italy's first climate lawsuit against the country's largest energy company,” he declared Matteo Ceruti, lawyer for the plaintiffs.“What we want is that those who knowingly and consciously caused climate change are held accountable", added Simona Abbate, of Greenpeace Italia.

The case is part of the so-called "climate litigation", climate litigation actions whose overall number, at a global level, has more than doubled from 2015 to today, bringing the total number of cases to over two thousand.One of these lawsuits, filed in the Netherlands by Milieudefensie, the Dutch branch of Friends of the Earth together with six other groups of environmental and human rights activists and over 17 thousand Dutch citizens, had led to a historic ruling by a Dutch court That had imposed for the British-Dutch multinational Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) to reduce its carbon emissions by a net 45% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels.In the United States, last April the Supreme Court rejected the appeals of Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Suncor Energy to move five fraud lawsuits.

It's been a bad month for fossil fuel companies.And that's great news for the planet

 

ENI he declared which will demonstrate that the new lawsuit is “baseless” and that it has adopted a correct approach to decarbonization:“The strategy combines and balances the essential objectives of sustainability, energy security and competitiveness of Italy”, reads a statement from the energy company which reserved the right to take legal action to protect its reputation in response to the “repeated actions defamatory"" undertaken by ReCommon.

What are the accusations against ENI based on?

“The accusations are based in part on a study commissioned by ENI between 1969 and 1970 at its Isvet research centre,” writes Stella Levantesi on the site DeSmog.The report clearly indicated that, if left unchecked, the increased use of fossil fuels could lead to a climate crisis within a few decades.

“According to a recent report by the Secretary of the United Nations – we read in the report – carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, due to the increase in the use of [fossil fuels], has increased over the last century by an average of 10% at world level;around the year 2000 this increase could reach 25%, with 'catastrophic' consequences on the climate".

Greenpeace Italia and ReCommon also unearthed a 1978 report produced by ENI's Tecneco company that assumed that, with the increase in fossil fuel consumption that began with the industrial revolution, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere in 2000 would reached 375-400 parts per million (ppm).“This increase is considered by some scientists to be a possible long-term problem, especially because it could alter the thermal balance of the atmosphere leading to climate change with serious consequences for the biosphere,” the report reads.

A very accurate prediction considering that between 1970 and 2000, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere went from 325 to 371 ppm, and in recent weeks it has exceeded 424 ppm.

The climate crisis is getting worse and not newsworthy

Also, how detected from DeSmog, an internal magazine of ENI, called Ecos, In the late 1980s and 1990s, he repeatedly mentioned the link between fossil fuels and climate change, and consistently touted methane as a risk-free energy solution.Methane is responsible for a third of current global warming caused by human activities.It is the main greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, has a higher heat trapping potential than carbon dioxide, but decomposes in the atmosphere faster.Which means reducing methane emissions can have a rapid impact on curbing global warming

“Methane is the clean energy of the future”, was the slogan of a 1986 advertising promotion on Ecos by Snam, a gas pipeline operator which at the time was a subsidiary of ENI, writes Rising.“Welcome friend methane!”, the announcement read, flanked by the image of a child blowing on a dandelion against a blue background.“Your methane helps Italy remain beautiful”, assured another Snam advert.

A 1988 ENI film, entitled “Man, environment and energy”, continues Levantesi, described buried fossil fuels as an “energy treasure” and told viewers that it was possible to “extract” them “without damaging the environment”.

An article by Ecos of 1991 explained that the combustion of fossil fuels was the main cause of the greenhouse effect, while an ENI advertisement in the same issue praised “methane, the blue energy that moves our cities” and stated that “ENI. ..produces components for clean fuels”.

“These findings reinforce and add to the pattern found in previous research:the oil majors were aware of the catastrophic effects their products would have on the world, but they failed to warn the public, hid their knowledge, denied the problem and hindered efforts to solve it,” commented Ben Franta, senior research fellow of the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme.“Like other fossil fuel companies, ENI may ultimately be held accountable in court for this pattern of deception and harm.”

Meanwhile, according to Greenpeace and ReCommon, ENI continued to deflect pressure to decrease oil and gas production in line with global climate goals, emphasizing technologies such as carbon capture and storage, biofuels and hydrogen . According to one analysis of the group of advocacy Reclaim Finance, by 2030 ENI's energy mix will be made up of more than 93% oil and gas, with the remainder made up of renewable and low-carbon energy.

April's heat wave in the western Mediterranean would have been virtually impossible without climate change

The extreme heat wave that hit Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Algeria in April 2023 was “at least 100 times more likely” due to climate change, according to a new “rapid attribution” study by the World Weather Attribution service.The heat wave was up to 3.5°C warmer than it would have been in a world without climate change.And it would have had just a 0.25% chance of occurring.

During the last week of April, temperatures were 20°C above normal across much of the western Mediterranean, reaching typical summer intensity.Temperatures exceeded 40°C in some areas of Morocco and Algeria, 38.8°C at Córdoba airport in Spain.

Mortality data relating to the heat wave are not yet available.However, according to Fatima Driouech, associate professor at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco and co-author of the study, "early season heat waves tend to be particularly lethal due to the population's lack of acclimatization and less preparation for the heat."Furthermore, for many western Mediterranean countries, unseasonal “summer” heat has exacerbated an intense, multi-year drought that was already threatening crop yields and water security.

The Mediterranean is a candidate to be a "hotspot" for worsening extremes of heat and drought, added Frederieke Otto, professor of climate science at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London and co-author of the study.

Democratic Republic of Congo, over 400 deaths from floods in the east of the country but climate change mitigation plans are lacking

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) said the death toll from floods in the east of the country has exceeded 400 people, reports Africanews.Heavy rains in South Kivu province caused rivers to overflow, which in turn caused landslides that submerged entire villages.5,500 people are still missing and thousands of survivors are left homeless, he adds The Guardian.Residents of the villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi, the worst hit by the disaster, had to walk long distances to evacuate nearby villages - some as much as three hours' walk away.Not even motorbikes are able to travel on the severely damaged roads in the area.

One of the main roads out of Kalehe, a remote rural area in eastern DRC, was so devastated that it was hampering aid and relief.Medical teams had to take the injured to a local hospital, where they were triaged, and wait, often for hours, until they were transported out of the area by boat across Lake Kivu to a hospital in the city of Bukavu, about three hours away by boat.

The residents of Kalehe, among the hardest hit areas, rely heavily on logging and charcoal production to live.The area has historically attracted higher levels of rainfall due to its proximity to forests, but increasing rates of deforestation, combined with slash-and-burn agriculture and land clearing for housing, means the mountainous region is particularly vulnerable to landslides during heavy rains.

“The environment is completely ruined.The rains don't come when we expect and when they come they sweep everything away,” said Josué Aruna, an environmental activist from South Kivu.“If no mitigation plans are in place, climate change will continue to bring one disaster after another, with even greater consequences than what we are seeing now.”

“We can't eat coal, we can't drink oil.”The African environmental movement's fight against the climate crisis

 

The floods in the DRC occurred a few days after those in Rwanda, on the other side of Lake Kivu, which they provoked around 130 dead.Even in Uganda there were floods which caused 18 deaths and displaced thousands, while historic sites and monuments along the Kenyan coast, such as Fort Jesus on the island of Mombasa, they were threatened from the impact of climate change.

Extreme weather events are occurring more frequently in the region, from severe drought in the eastern Horn of Africa to excessive rainfall elsewhere in eastern and central Africa.These floods are further demonstration of the acceleration of climate change, he noted the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres.According to World Bank forecasts, by 2050 there will be around 86 million Africans they will migrate within their own continent due to the climate crisis.

The next World Bank president could unlock trillions for the ecological transition

What if a new world leader came onto the scene who could free up trillions of dollars to help developing countries cope with climate change?This is what could happen with the appointment of business executive Ajay Banga as head of the World Bank, he states former World Bank vice president and climate change envoy Rachel Kyte in an interview with New York Times.

The Bank's mission should be to help countries develop sustainably and reduce poverty by advising states on what they should do, lending them money to start projects and guaranteeing investments from other financial institutions.For years, however, it has been accused of not being sufficiently sensitive to the needs of countries affected by climate change and already heavily indebted.

The poorest countries most exposed to the effects of climate change are increasingly questioning the very rules of the global financial system that the World Bank represents, underlining how those rules are entangled in a spiral of debt, forcing them to pay for a crisis climate change that they did not cause and which is putting their economies and populations at risk.According to the International Monetary Fund, 60% of low-income countries are in distressed or at risk of distressed debt, meaning their repayment obligations are so high that in some cases they are forced to renegotiate their payment schedule.

Who pays for the climate disaster?

 

“The difference in this debt crisis compared to the one 20 or 30 years ago is that the debt is not just owned by the West.The creditors are largely China, countries such as the United States or France.But a lot of the debt is actually held by private equity or private banks,” explains Kyte.“So, one of the things that will happen is that the World Bank will have to find a new way to sit at a different table to work on solving the problem.It is therefore very important that I know all these private financiers.”

The bank can take much more innovative, creative and intelligent risks, continues the expert.“This is not a bank sitting down with potential lenders and saying:'Well, the owners couldn't find the money.'It's the bank that comes to them and says:'If you do this, you will save hundreds of millions of dollars in costs incurred for humanitarian aid, for disaster responses, for refugees.'The bank must promote intelligent development and climate action.I think this is what people expect from Ajay Banga.”The time may be ripe for this change, Kyte concludes:Banga “will have more tailwinds for reform than any other president has had in modern times.”

Students occupy schools and universities across Europe to protest inaction on the climate crisis

Twenty-two schools and universities across Europe they were occupied as part of a new youth protest campaign against climate inaction.

In Germany, the universities of Wolfenbüttel, Magdeburg, Münster, Bielefeld, Regensburg, Bremen and Berlin were occupied.In Spain, students who occupied the Autonomous University of Barcelona organized lectures on the climate crisis.In Belgium, 40 students occupied the University of Ghent.In the Czech Republic, around 100 students camped outside the Ministry of Trade and Industry.In the UK, occupations were taking place at the universities of Leeds, Exeter and Falmouth.

The strongest actions were in Lisbon, Portugal, where students occupied seven schools and two universities and blocked traffic with roadblocks in solidarity with the occupations.

The blockades and occupations are part of an extensive campaign entitled “End Fossil:Occupy!”, which aims to develop and intensify the youth climate strike movement.“We start as students occupying schools and universities, but we need all of society to join us to end fossil [fuels],” the campaign explains.“Only with a mass movement that involves the whole of society and that takes responsibility for stopping the era of fossil fuels can we really change the system”.

Does nature have basic rights similar to those of humans?

Does nature have basic rights similar to those of humans?This is the theme proposed by the newsletter on climate change New York Times “Climate Forward”. 

Today, a growing number of states and courts say that the environment should have legal rights.Countries like Ecuador, New Zealand and Uganda have laws that recognize nature as rights.While in India, Colombia and Bangladesh have been issued sentences in this direction.

Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, is considered the first municipality to have recognized these rights, in 2006.Two years later, Ecuador he introduced the idea of ​​extending legal rights to the environment in its Constitution, stating that nature, "where life reproduces and manifests itself, has the right to integral respect for its existence".

Ecuador itself probably represents the most significant case.In 2021 the Constitutional Court he established that a copper and gold mine would have violated the rights of a protected cloud forest in Los Cedros, in the north-west of the country.A similar ruling, issued at the end of March, he protected a part of Ecuador's cloud forest in the Intag Valley from a copper mine.

Previously, in 2017, an Indian court he acknowledged the rights of the Ganges River, considered sacred by millions of people.The judges ruled that polluting it was equivalent to harming a person.Most recently, two weeks ago, the city of Seattle he solved it one of the first cases of recognition of the rights of nature in US courts.The ruling determined that salmon have the right to pass through the city's dams.Now Seattle will have to comply with the ruling.

However, there is still no guarantee that these laws will be fully effective.For example, although Uganda has recognized the rights to its forests, this has not stopped its government from authorizing large oil projects that could destroy them.

To be truly effective it is necessary to go beyond the strictly legal level, explains al New York Times Mari Margil, executive director of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, a nonprofit group that works to advance the rights of nature around the world.Transforming our relationship with nature requires “a legal change, a truly fundamental legal change.But this change only happens when a truly fundamental social or cultural change occurs.”

Preview image via techeconomy2030.it