Latest reports suggest that the Italian oil major, Eni is facing the country’s first climate lawsuit, with environmental groups alleging the company used “lobbying and greenwashing” to push for more fossil fuels despite having known about the risks its product posed since 1970.
According to reports, Greenpeace Italy and the Italian advocacy group ReCommon aim to build on a similar case targeting the Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell in the Netherlands to force Eni to slash its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030.
“The urgency of taking action against the climate crisis has prompted us to bring the first climate lawsuit in Italy against the country’s largest energy company,” said Matteo Ceruti, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
The allegations rest in part on a study Eni commissioned between 1969 and 1970 from its Isvet research centre, which has been shared by the nonprofit climate news service DeSmog. Among other things, the report made clear that if left unchecked, rising fossil fuel use could lead to a climate crisis within just a few decades.
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According to the report, “[C]arbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to a recent report by the UN secretary, given the increased use of [fossil fuels], has increased over the last century by an average of 10% worldwide; around the year 2000 this increase could reach 25%, with ‘catastrophic’ consequences on climate,”.
Greenpeace Italy and ReCommon are also said to have unearthed a 1978 report produced by Eni’s Tecneco company, which included a projection of how much atmospheric CO2 levels would rise by the turn of the century.
“It is assumed that with the increasing consumption of fossil fuels, which began with the Industrial Revolution, the CO2 concentration will reach 375-400 [parts per million or ppm] in the year 2000,” the report further stated. “This increase is considered by some scientists as a possible long-term problem, especially since it could change the thermal balance of the atmosphere leading to climate changes with serious consequences for the biosphere.”
Further research by DeSmog has revealed that Eni’s company magazine Ecos made repeated references to climate change during the late 1980s and 1990s – while running advertising campaigns promoting planet-warming natural gas as a “clean” fuel.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
