Rome – Italian oil and gas company, ENI, filed an official Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) on Monday, 7 October, targeting two organisations, Greenpeace Italy and ReCommon. It is the latest fossil fuel major to launch an ill-founded legal assault at a Greenpeace organisation, joining Shell, Total and Energy Transfer in an attack against civil freedoms and environmental protection. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cThere is no surprise in ENI joining other climate polluters like Shell, TotalEnergies and Energy Transfer in trying to silence civil society. The business model of the oil and gas industry entails both an assault on people and nature, as well as oppression of those who call it out,\u201d stated Greenpeace Italy and ReCommon. \u201cOur determination to defend our planet remains unwavering. We shall continue to expose ENI as a member of the club of companies most responsible for the climate crisis<\/a>, and inform the public about what ENI is trying to hide<\/a>,\u201d the organisations concluded. <\/p>\n\n ENI’s judicial attack was first announced in July 2023, in an effort to counter a still pending lawsuit \u2013 the Just Cause<\/a> \u2013 filed two months earlier by Greenpeace Italy and ReCommon against the oil giant. The official filing of the case this week sets the oil company to meet environmental organisations in court in 2025.<\/p>\n\n Rising oil and gas related emissions are directly responsible for the onslaught of extreme weather events striking worldwide, including killer drought, extreme heat and floods in Italy. A peer-reviewed 2023 study by Greenpeace Netherlands<\/a> finds ENI’s self-reported 2022 emissions could cause 27,000 excess deaths due to increased temperature alone before the end of the century. <\/p>\n\n A global rise in climate litigation cases by environmental defenders is helping to hold polluters accountable. The series of recent SLAPP cases by Shell, TotalEnergies, Energy Transfer and ENI is part of a looming \u201cbacklash\u201d that the United Nations had warned of.[1] Nevertheless, the European Union issued an anti-SLAPP directive last April which, once implemented, can put an end to such tactics.[2] Italy must implement the directive by 7 May 2026.<\/p>\n\n \u201cThe fossil fuel industry is trying to constitute a world in which communities are not only battered by the climate crisis, but where it is dangerous for anyone to protest and offer an alternative. If companies like ENI have their way, scientists, Indigenous Peoples and environmental organisations will be squeezed into an ever shrinking democratic space,\u201d said Chiara Campione, programme co-director of Greenpeace Italy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n Loss and damage, caused by the oil and gas industry, are leaving individuals and families destitute, burdening national budgets and breaking the global insurance system. Greenpeace organisations will maintain their work to hold the world\u2019s polluters accountable and to lead a global campaign for governments to force climate polluters to stop drilling and start paying.<\/p>\n\n ENDS<\/p>\n\n Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n [1] This is according to the United Nations Environment Programme’s 2023 publication, Global Climate Litigation Report: 2023 Status Review<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n [2] European Union’s anti-SLAPP directive<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n Contacts<\/strong>: <\/p>\n\n Felice Moramarco, Greenpeace Italy, Communication project strategist, felice.moramarco@greenpeace.org<\/a>, +39 3487630682<\/p>\n\n Tal Harris, Greenpeace International, Global Media Lead \u2013 Stop Drilling Start Paying campaign, tharris@greenpeace.org<\/a>, +41-782530550<\/p>\n\n