Paris Partner featured in RFI and ‘Law.com’ on climate-change case involving TotalEnergies

Paris Litigation Partner Elodie Valette was quoted Feb. 28 in two articles published by Radio France Internationale and one article published March 3 by Law.com on a closely watched case in France over companies’ duty to combat climate change, which has been dismissed on procedural grounds. The Paris Judicial Tribunal dismissed the case against TotalEnergies, which was sued by six NGOs for failing to prevent risks to safety, human rights, and the environment in a mining project in Uganda and Tanzania.

The NGOs argued that the development of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline failed to adhere to a “duty of vigilance”, a 2017 French law that makes companies responsible for preventing harm in their global operations. The court, which has national jurisdiction over human rights cases, ruled the suit was “inadmissible”, saying the plaintiffs did not correctly follow court procedures. The case was the first in Europe to be decided on the merits of a duty of vigilance plan, rather than on procedure.