TotalEnergies faces lawsuit in France for 'damaging environment, climate' in Africa

Four environmental associations have accused French petroleum company TotalEnergies of "damaging the environment" and "climate" with its partner, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), local media reported on Monday.

According to French newspaper Le Monde, the criminal complaint of Darwin Climax Coalitions, Sea Shepherd France, Wild Legal, and Stop EACOP-Stop Total included accusations of "avoiding the fight against a global disaster, creating a danger to people by destroying other people's property and causing death by negligence."

TotalEnergies, in its response, said that they were not aware of the complaint and had no information about what accusations the company was facing. The energy giant said if necessary, a defense will be made in court against the accusations.

Last year, TotalEnergies announced that a $10 billion agreement was reached as part of the EACOP. The project included partnership of the China National Offshore Oil Company and the states of Uganda and Tanzania.

The total length of the pipeline was announced to be 1,443 kilometers (897 miles), 96 km (60 mi) of which will be located within the borders of Uganda and 1,147 km (713 mi) within the borders of Tanzania.

The company aims to drill 400 oil wells in Uganda by 2025.

After three environmental associations in the country filed a criminal complaint against TotalEnergies in 2020, alleging that it was deceptive in its policies to combat climate change, the prosecutor's office decided to open a preliminary investigation back in January 2022.