Greenpeace estimates France TotalEnergies' true carbon footprint is four times larger than what the oil and gas giant reports. An assertion, released in a report of the NGO, which did not please the company. TotalEnergies is therefore suing Greenpeace France, paving the way for an unprecedented debate on carbon accounting methods.

Greenpeace France published, in November, a report called "carbon footprint of TotalEnergies: the account is not there", according to which TotalEnergies would have "a total emission of 1.6 billion tons of CO2 equivalent, while the group indicates to have emitted 455 million tons" over the year 2019. TotalEnergies had denounced in the wake of a "methodology for the least dubious" and threatened the NGO with prosecution. Of which note, six months later.

A "questionable methodology"

"Greenpeace and Factor-X [the firm commissioned by the NGO] disseminated false and misleading information, based on a questionable methodology and with multiple errors, double counting and approximations, resulting in an inconsistent result" on the calculation of the carbon footprint, the company said Wednesday. Greenpeace itself announced its civil subpoena on Wednesday.

She believes it constitutes a "gag lawsuit" since the company demands that Greenpeace remove the report from its site and stop talking about it. "These civil proceedings are not completely trivial. Total could have sued us for defamation" in criminal proceedings, or via "more traditional procedures following a publication," responded Jean-François Julliard, director general of Greenpeace France. "There, we know that we are gone for several years" of written exchanges between the two parties.

Accusations of greenwashing

"We accept criticism and we accept that our strategy is criticized," replies a spokesperson for TotalEnergies, denying any "gag order". But Greenpeace France and Factor-X have, according to the group, used "methodologies that they knew were necessarily flawed and that led to inconsistent results." The summons before the Paris judicial court aims to recognize the "damage suffered" by the company, he explains. TotalEnergies claims a symbolic euro in damages.

The procedure has an advantage, at a time when thousands of companies promise carbon neutrality, a concept that is not harmonized and poorly verified: it will "allow, at least, to have in-depth debates on the issue of Total carbon accounting," added Jean-François Julliard. The same judicial court of Paris is also the jurisdiction of the civil procedure brought this time by Greenpeace against TotalEnergies for greenwashing in its communication around its climate objectives, via the legal ground of misleading commercial practices.

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  • Greenhouse gases