"
Cynicalism
" of TotalEnergies or "
obstinacy
" of NGOs?
The French group was summoned before the Paris court on Wednesday by six NGOs who accuse it of failing in its "
duty of vigilance
" on a mega oil project in Uganda and Tanzania.
Friends of the Earth, Survival and four Ugandan NGOs accuse TotalEnergies of carrying out this project in defiance of human rights and the environment and urge the group to respect a law passed in 2017, which imposes on multinationals a "
duty of vigilance
" on their activities around the world.
This legislation thus obliges them to "
prevent serious violations of human rights, the health and safety of people and the environment.
at their foreign subcontractors and suppliers through a “
vigilance plan
”, which must map the risks and establish measures to prevent them.
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Wednesday's hearing, before many actors from the associative and political world including deputies behind the law, is the first on the merits before the courts since the 2017 vote. It is held three years late in due to a procedural battle lost by the oil and gas giant.
In the case of TotalEnergies, the six NGOs have two colossal projects in their sights: “
Tilenga
”, a drilling of 419 wells in Uganda partly located in a natural park, and the EACOP project (East African Crude Oil Pipeline), longer heated oil pipeline in the world, intended to transport hydrocarbons to the Indian Ocean by crossing Tanzania over 1,445 km.
The active phase of the works began in February and oil production in Uganda, an authoritarian country in southern Africa, is due to start in 2025 despite condemnations of the project by the European Parliament, four UN special rapporteurs and many political and community leaders.
“118,000 expropriations”
During this historic first hearing, Louis Cofflard, the associations' lawyer, regretted that TotalEnergies had not taken advantage of the three years of proceedings to "
commit to and comply with its obligations
", regretting a "
certain form of cynicism
” at the oil and gas group.
Pointing out the supposed shortcomings of TotalEnergies' vigilance plan, he regretted not finding "
the environmental risks and the climatic impacts linked to the project
".
His colleague Céline Gagey succeeds him on behalf of Survie by listing the opposition to the project and the figures that hurt.
Some "
118,000 partial expropriations are necessary for this project
", she assures, but the populations to be compensated, often small farmers, are "
deprived of the right to work their land before having received the slightest compensation
".
A total of 28,000 people are still waiting for compensation and "
TotalEnergies is taking no action to prevent thousands of farmers from being deprived of the right to use their land
“, continues Me Gagey, asking that the court order the group to pay them immediately.
Opposite, the lawyer for TotalEnergies, Antonin Lévy, assures that he “
could have spent five hours denouncing the shortcomings
” and the untruths of the NGOs but prefers to focus on “
the inadmissibility of their request
”.
Among other reasons, he notes that the summons launched in 2019 was aimed at the vigilance plan of 2018, which has since evolved, and that the judge in chambers cannot take extraterritorial measures.
The project, recalls Antonin Lévy, is led by TotalEnergies Uganda, a subsidiary of the French group.
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The NGOs actually want to bring "
the trial of TotalEnergies, Tilenga and EACOP, Tanzania, Uganda and their leaders
", asserts the lawyer, who denounces "
this obstinacy to be the emblematic affair, that which may set a precedent, to the detriment of the populations concerned
".
The decision was reserved for February 28.
