French court dismisses TotalEnergies lawsuit against Greenpeace France

A Paris judicial court on Thursday dismissed a TotalEnergies TTE-N lawsuit against Greenpeace France over accusations that the oil giant under-reported its 2019 greenhouse gas emissions, a court document seen by Reuters showed.

The ruling said that the environmental group’s accusations were too broad for them to be examined by the court.

A TotalEnergies statement said the company was taking note of the court ruling and was considering its options.

Greenpeace France described the ruling as a “snub” for TotalEnergies and “a victory for freedom of speech”.

In November 2022 Greenpeace France issued a report that accused the French energy major of emitting four times more climate-warming gases through its operations and products in 2019 than officially reported.

TotalEnergies told investors it emitted 455 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent in 2019 and that the company was on track to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Greenpeace, citing calculations by a hired climate consultancy, Factor-X, countered that the official tally was closer to 1.64 billion tons and asked the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) to issue sanctions against the company for the alleged reporting inaccuracy.

In May 2023 TotalEnergies sued Greenpeace France and Factor-X, asking the Paris judicial court to rule that the publication contained “false and misleading information” and to order a withdrawal of the report under penalty of €2,000 ($2,158) in fines per day.