On the eve of the first hearing in the civil lawsuit filed last May 9 against ENI, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and the Ministry of Economy and Finance by 12 Italian citizens, Greenpeace Italia and ReCommon, the two environmental associations in a report published today highlight how, in the climate litigation, ENI has asked for technical advice from personalities who are anything but independent. Even to those who, on several occasions, have expressed denialist positions on global warming. In this case, it is Carlo Stagnaro, current director of studies and research at the Bruno Leoni Institute, a liberalist think tank also known for having, in turn, taken anti-scientific positions on the climate crisis on several occasions.
“Can the advice of someone who has often personally espoused and disseminated climate change denialist positions be considered reliable in the context of climate litigation? Can an expert called upon to give an opinion on the work of a fossil company be considered free of judgment if this same expert has received fees from this same company in the past?” ask the two organizations, which stress that they have presented only independent and reliable documentation to the court. “We hope that the judge will reject the numerous and specious objections made by ENI and the other parties and instead instruct the trial, allowing for a broad confrontation that will lead to a transformative change in the company’s industrial strategies, making it accountable for its contribution to the climate crisis”.
Over the years Stagnaro has supported denialist theses by spreading theories on climate change in Italy that are considered baseless; indulging in harsh rants against the IPCC, i.e., the highest scientific authority on climate change globally; and weaving a dense network of relationships with known global denialist organizations, complete with participation in “popularization” events organized by think tanks that have been working for decades to spread doubts about the anthropogenic origin of climate change (if not outright trying to disprove it).
In addition to Stagnaro, ENI also chose among its consultants Stefano Consonni, a professor of Energy and Environmental Systems at the Department of Energy of the Milan Polytechnic University, presented as an “independent” expert despite his decades-long collaborations with the largest global fossil fuel companies, such as Exxon, BP and ENI itself. A deep and well-established link, the one between Consonni and the world of energy companies, so much so that in 2021 the academic was sentenced by the courts to compensate the Politecnico di Milano, where he was an employee, in the amount of 250,000 euros for having carried out, without authorization from the university, assignments in favor of for-profit companies.
Italy’s largest multinational fossil fuel company is being sued for caused and future damages resulting from climate change, to which ENI has contributed through its conduct over the past decades by continuing to invest in fossil fuels.
Greenpeace Italy and ReCommon demand that ENI be obliged to revise its industrial strategy to reduce emissions from its operations by at least 45 per cent by 2030 from 2020 levels, as indicated by the international scientific community to keep the global average temperature increase within 1.5°C, and to comply with the Paris Climate Agreement. It is then requested that the Ministry of Economy and Finance and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti adopt a climate policy to guide their respective participation in the company in line with the Paris Agreement.
The era where the fossil fuel industry and its backers get away with and profit from their toxic practices is ending. Around the world, people are holding polluting corporations and governments to account, which continue to put profit over people, and render them unable to abuse their toxic power anymore. Those most affected, reclaim their space, their rights and their say to push back against those who have abused political, cultural and economic power.
