Aussie LNG Producer Challenged on Clear Claims in Landmark Case

One of many world’s first authorized challenges over company greenwashing kicked off in an Australian courtroom, with an activist shareholder group claiming pure fuel producer Santos Ltd. misled buyers on its local weather targets.

The Australasian Centre for Company Duty stated Monday within the Federal Court docket that Santos breached native legal guidelines with claims in 2020 and 2021 studies that it will cut back scope 1 and a pair of emissions by 30 p.c by 2030, zero out these emissions by 2040 and that its pure fuel is a “clear gasoline.” 

The Adelaide-based firm, a serious producer of liquefied pure fuel for patrons in Asia, didn’t reply to an emailed request for remark. It denied the claims within the courtroom, in response to the Australian Related Press. 

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The case highlights the controversy over the function of pure fuel as nations search to restrict air pollution to curb the results of local weather change. Producers have argued that the gasoline emits simply half the carbon dioxide of coal in electrical energy technology and is due to this fact very important within the transition to renewable vitality, however critics argue that doesn’t account for elements similar to methane leaks, with a Cornell College research this month stating LNG’s greenhouse fuel footprint is definitely larger. 

Santos has no “clear pathway” to realize its emissions discount objectives and no “affordable grounds” to set them given its deliberate growth of oil and fuel tasks, ACCR attorneys stated Monday. 

“They’re all targets, they’re not guarantees or predictions to realize these outcomes,” the corporate stated in its opening assertion, in response to the AAP.

The case will proceed for a number of extra weeks, with closing submissions as a consequence of be heard in mid-November.

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