‘Total’ misunderstanding

Betty Henderson TOTALENERGIES, the French oil giant, is making headlines as it takes on environmental group Greenpeace in court over a report claiming that the company massively underestimated its greenhouse gas emissions. The oil company announced its decision to sue on Wednesday, May 3. The report, which was published last November, accused TotalEnergies of emitting around 1.64 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2019, compared to the 455 million tonnes that the company disclosed in public statements. However, TotalEnergies says that the report is filled with false and misleading information, and that the calculations were based on dubious methodologies. Greenpeace and Factor-X, the climate consulting firm behind the report,

TotalEnergies is accused of underreporting emmissions.

UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise appearance in the Netherlands on Wednesday, May 3. Announcing his appear‐ance, sources said he would speak at The Hague and visit the International Criminal Court which is in the process of investigating alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine. In the meantime, explo‐sions were reported in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, just a day after Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out a drone attack on the Kremlin. Za‐porizhzhia and Odessa in the south were also re‐ported to have been attacked. Russian officials claimed Ukraine attempted to assassinate Presi‐dent Vladimir Putin, but Zelensky firmly denied say that the lawsuit is an attempt to muzzle the environmental group before the TotalEnergies general assembly on Friday, May 26, where activist shareholders will push for stricter climate commitments. Environmental groups are calling for entry to be blocked at the company’s global oil and petroleum projects in protest. Meanwhile, the court hearing on Thursday, September 7 is eagerly awaited by onlookers, as the case promises to be a significant one, given the high stakes involved.