Greenpeace hails Italy court ruling allowing climate lawsuit against energy company ENI to go ahead
In an ordinance released on Monday, the Court of Cassation rejected ENI's motions to dismiss the lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds and ordered the case to be heard on its merits by a Rome tribunal.
ENI, for its part, said that it was greatly satisfied with the decision, and it expected that the Rome court would ultimately 'dismantle' the climate activists' claims of responsibility.
Greenpeace, environmental group ReCommon and a dozen Italian citizens had sued ENI and its two main government shareholders, the Italian finance ministry and development bank, in 2023 seeking damages for what they said were the effects of climate change.
The plaintiffs cited their fundamental rights enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights, as well as Italy's ratification of various international climate accords and ENI's stated commitment to reaching climate reduction targets.
ENI and the government sought to dismiss the suit on jurisdictional and other grounds, but the Cassation court ruled that the case could go ahead.
For more than a century, scientists have known that large quantities of greenhouse gases, released from the burning of fossil fuels, go up into the atmosphere and heat the planet, leading to higher temperatures, rising sea levels and extreme weather events that are both more frequent and more intense.
Around the world in recent years, individuals, climate activist groups and local governments have sued energy companies and governments to try to force them to take concrete action to curb greenhouse gas emissions and compensate for losses associated with climate change.
Greenpeace and ReCommon called the ruling historic, saying it would impact current and future climate-related litigation in Italy. They say it brings Italian courts in line with other European countries that have recognized the rights of people to try to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for global warming through lawsuits, and called the ruling itself one of the most significant in climate change litigation internationally.
'No one, not even a colossus like ENI, can escape its responsibilities anymore,' the two groups said in a statement. 'Judges will finally be able to examine the merits of our case: those who pollute and contribute to the climate crisis must answer for their actions.'
ENI said that it welcomed the ruling.
'The proceedings can finally resume before the Court of Rome, where the unfounded theories put forward by Greenpeace and ReCommon regarding the alleged responsibility of Eni for climate change-related damages will be dismantled, in a context that is rigorous and respectful of the law, rather than driven by the instrumental, unfounded, and often misleading slogans of the two associations,' ENI said in a statement.
While the ruling doesn't enter into the merits of the case, Greenpeace and Recommon highlighted the judges' determination that Italian courts can have jurisdiction over claims about emissions by ENI subsidiaries in foreign countries, since in this case, harm allegedly occurred in Italy and decisions were made by the Italy-based parent company.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
4 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Let's not panic about Taiwan yet
Opinion 'I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we (the U.S. and China) will fight in 2025,' wrote General Mike Minihan, head of U.S. Air Mobility Command, in a private memo two years ago. There's still five months to go, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he's wrong. Don't take my word for it, because my recent record in these matters is bad. I didn't think Russia's Vladimir Putin was crazy enough to invade Ukraine although I knew he was largely detached from reality, and I was wrong. For a long time I would not use the word 'genocide' to describe what Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu was doing in Gaza, and I was wrong again. In my defence, I had not spent quality time with either man and I was reluctant to predict their actions based entirely on other people's estimates of their characters (especially since most of those people didn't know them personally either). I still felt compelled to weigh the pros and cons of the case, on the mistaken assumption that facts had some influence on their decisions. The possibility of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is a far greater threat to the peace of the world (such as it is) than the relative sideshows in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine. Aircraft carriers and nuclear weapons on both sides. A few poorly planned displays of 'determination,' and the U.S. is in a war with China — with the two Koreas and Japan not far behind. China's President Xi Jinping will never rule out using force to 'recover' Taiwan, but the story that he has set a 2027 deadline for that terrifying gamble is just a Washington think-tank special. He does harp about it a lot, though. Successive American administrations have practised 'strategic ambiguity' (i.e. maybe the U.S. would fight to defend Taiwan and maybe it wouldn't), and the fickle enthusiasms of Donald Trump muddy the waters even further. He is widely seen as a strategic coward (TACO), but he is sufficiently erratic that his response is really incalculable. As for Taiwan, President Lai Ching-te of the cautiously pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) serves up the usual word salad: 'The message of history is clear. Today we share the same values and face similar challenges as many of the democracies that participated in the European war (1939-45).' Evasiveness as policy, so as not to rile China. So I will risk my reputation as a soothsayer once again and assume that both Xi Jinping and Lai Ching-te are rational men. In that case, it is unlikely that either man will risk everything on one roll of the dice. Xi will not set the machinery in motion for a sea- and airborne invasion of Taiwan, and Lai will certainly not declare independence for Taiwan. No government of Taiwan, even back in the decades when the KMT (now reformed) was the tyrannical and maniacally anti-communist single ruling party, has ever seriously considered abandoning the sacred fiction that there is only one China including Taiwan. There is just a persistent non-violent dispute over which government is legitimate, Beijing or Taipei. As for Xi, who is effectively president-for-life, he faces no special deadline to claim his prize. 'Reunification' is his legacy project, but he has just turned 72 and there's lots of time yet. And always before him is the nightmare example of Putin's three-day 'special military operation' to bring Ukraine back under the rule of the Russian 'motherland.' Above all, there is Taiwan's 'silicon shield.' The island state manufactures 47 per cent of the world's advanced semiconductor chips, including all of the most advanced ones. Even the United States is one generation behind, and so is China despite its 'Deep Seek' triumph in producing much cheaper high-performance AIs (on Nvidia chips made in Taiwan). Invade Taiwan and all that is gone. It might be irrational, but even the Trump administration might feel that Taiwan is a treasure that it must defend come what may. The game is not worth the candle, and Xi will not invade for at least three years. He probably never will. There! I said it! Now we wait and see. Gwynne Dyer's new book is Intervention Earth: Life-Saving Ideas from the World's Climate Engineers.
Vancouver Sun
17 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
Deportation hearing for alleged Mafia boss in Canada derailed by wiretap decision
In the middle of a high-stakes deportation hearing against an alleged Mafia boss living in Canada, the government unexpectedly declared it will no longer rely on any evidence obtained from controversial Italian police wiretaps covertly made using the phones of visiting members of a mob family to Canada. The announcement Friday threatens to derail yet another attempt to deport Vincenzo (Jimmy) DeMaria, a man accused of being a Mafia boss in Ontario who has successfully fought off deportation for more than 40 years. An Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) hearing is underway on the government's latest attempt to deport DeMaria based on allegations he is a member of the 'Ndrangheta, the proper name of the powerful Mafia that formed in Italy's region of Calabria. DeMaria has denied the allegation. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Lawyers for DeMaria had repeatedly called for the Italian police wiretaps to be rejected, calling them illegal foreign interference. On Friday, however, they said the government's sudden agreement in the middle of the hearing was absurd. 'What we have here is an abuse of process by the minister (of public safety),' said Shoshana Green, one of DeMaria's three lawyers at the hearing. 'It is an absurdity that the minister, on a whim, is changing the nature of this entire hearing. How can Mr. DeMaria properly prepare for a matter when they are literally changing the foundation of their case four days in?' Green said information from the wiretaps has already been extensively 'co-mingled' with other evidence entered in the case over years, including in two days of testimony earlier this week by a senior police officer from Italy who was the government's first witness at this hearing against DeMaria. Green asked Benjamin Dolin, the IRB member deciding the matter, to issue a stay of proceedings, which would suspend the government's appeal of an earlier immigration board decision to allow DeMaria to remain in Canada , where he has lived since moving from Italy as an infant. 'Or in the alternative, we would certainly consent to the minister abandoning their appeal,' Green said. Andrej Rustja, arguing on behalf of Canada Border Services Agency, said that after reviewing its strategy for the case Thursday night, the government decided to not rely on the wiretaps recorded by Italian police in Canada in 2019 and told DeMaria's lawyers as a courtesy and to save time at the hearing. Neither Rustja nor government lawyer Daniel Morse said why they shifted their strategy. Dolin told Green the government's change 'would seem to benefit' her client. 'I don't see any prejudice to Mr. DeMaria,' but he adjourned the hearing to allow DeMaria's lawyers to file a written motion for a stay and for the government to respond. DeMaria had been scheduled to testify in the case Friday morning. The Italian wiretaps have been under scrutiny for years. The recordings provided an intriguing and colourful peek into activities of the 'Ndrangheta and revealed links between those under investigation in Italy to alleged affiliates in Canada. In 2019, Italian police learned that a mobster in Calabria named Vincenza Muià was coming to Toronto to speak with people here to find out who within the 'Ndrangheta had murdered his brother in Italy, so that he could properly avenge his death. Muià said he needed to be 100 per cent certain before enacting his vicious retribution for his dead brother because of organizational volatility. He wanted to check with DeMaria and other alleged 'Ndrangheta bosses in Canada about it, according to Italian police testimony heard earlier . In one recording, according to a transcript translated into English, Muià told a Canadian who was travelling between Toronto and Calabria to tell 'Jimmy' (who police identified as meaning DeMaria): 'For my brother, once I know who it was, if I can, I'll eat him in pieces, in pieces, but I have to be sure…. I'll eat him in small pieces, small pieces on the barbecue, and I invite him to come eat.' Police could listen to Muià's plotting because they inserted a Trojan house virus into his phone that turned it into a microphone — recording not just what was said in phone calls but all sound in the room where the phone was, even when it was not in use. The recordings are controversial because while the bugging was approved by an Italian judge, there was no judicial authorization by a Canadian court for communications to be intercepted in Canada when Muià visited, bringing his bugged phone with him. The hearing heard this week that Italian police had asked police in Canada to help them bug the airplane that the visitors were arriving and departing on so they could hear what they said during the flights. The Italian authorities were told by Ontario prosecutors that intercepting such communications in Canada without judicial authorization was illegal. While Canadian police helped Italian police retrieve a listening device that had been installed in Italy on an Alitalia jet once it landed in Toronto, they refused to help install bugs for the return flight. Complaints were made about the wiretaps in Italy, as well. Some of those charged in Calabria based in part on the recordings made in Canada appealed their conviction, but Italy's high court accepted the operation was legal in Italy because the bugs were installed on the phones in Italy and the recordings captured on them in Canada were transmitted to Italy before they were listened to by police. In Canada last year, in anticipation of this deportation hearing, DeMaria's lawyers asked the IRB to exclude the wiretaps, along with other evidence, from the record of the case. They said the wiretaps would be considered illegal in Canada's courts. Dolin refused their motion in October, saying that under Canadian law, immigration hearings used different rules of evidence than criminal courts. 'When it comes to entering documentation as evidence, almost anything will be admissible as long as it is relevant to an issue to be decided by the IAD (Immigration Appeal Division),' Dolin wrote in that ruling. The interruption to this hearing and complaints and arguments over evidence and process are not as surprising in a case against DeMaria as they might otherwise be. Ottawa has been trying and failing to kick him out of the country for more than 40 years. DeMaria has lived in Canada for almost all his 71 years after emigrating from Italy with his parents when he was nine months old, but he never became a Canadian citizen. The door to citizenship slammed shut after he was convicted of shooting a man who owed him money, killing him at a fruit store in Toronto in 1981. Ever since his second-degree murder conviction, the government has been trying to deport him, with each attempt fully challenged and litigated by DeMaria and a battery of lawyers. He was released from prison on full parole in 1992 and lived without legal problems for some time. Over the years, however, various police investigators alleged he grew to become an influential member of the 'Ndrangheta in Toronto. At one immigration hearing a police officer named him as the mob's 'top guy in Toronto.' At a previous immigration hearing in 2023, DeMaria denied being a mobster, or knowing anything about the 'Ndrangheta, apart from what he had read in newspapers. He claimed ethnic profiling and anti-Italian prejudice was behind efforts to deport him. Dolin gave lawyers for both sides at this hearing until the end of August to send him all of their arguments and responses in writing for him to rule on DeMaria's stay motion. The hearing was scheduled to reconvene in October unless he told the lawyers otherwise. • Email: ahumphreys@ | Twitter: AD_Humphreys Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
Edmonton Journal
17 hours ago
- Edmonton Journal
Deportation hearing for alleged Mafia boss in Canada derailed by wiretap decision
In the middle of a high-stakes deportation hearing against an alleged Mafia boss living in Canada, the government unexpectedly declared it will no longer rely on any evidence obtained from controversial Italian police wiretaps covertly made using the phones of visiting members of a mob family to Canada. Article content The announcement Friday threatens to derail yet another attempt to deport Vincenzo (Jimmy) DeMaria, a man accused of being a Mafia boss in Ontario who has successfully fought off deportation for more than 40 years. Article content Article content Article content An Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) hearing is underway on the government's latest attempt to deport DeMaria based on allegations he is a member of the 'Ndrangheta, the proper name of the powerful Mafia that formed in Italy's region of Calabria. DeMaria has denied the allegation. Article content Article content Lawyers for DeMaria had repeatedly called for the Italian police wiretaps to be rejected, calling them illegal foreign interference. On Friday, however, they said the government's sudden agreement in the middle of the hearing was absurd. Article content 'What we have here is an abuse of process by the minister (of public safety),' said Shoshana Green, one of DeMaria's three lawyers at the hearing. Article content 'It is an absurdity that the minister, on a whim, is changing the nature of this entire hearing. How can Mr. DeMaria properly prepare for a matter when they are literally changing the foundation of their case four days in?' Article content Article content Green said information from the wiretaps has already been extensively 'co-mingled' with other evidence entered in the case over years, including in two days of testimony earlier this week by a senior police officer from Italy who was the government's first witness at this hearing against DeMaria. Article content Article content Green asked Benjamin Dolin, the IRB member deciding the matter, to issue a stay of proceedings, which would suspend the government's appeal of an earlier immigration board decision to allow DeMaria to remain in Canada, where he has lived since moving from Italy as an infant. Article content 'Or in the alternative, we would certainly consent to the minister abandoning their appeal,' Green said. Article content Andrej Rustja, arguing on behalf of Canada Border Services Agency, said that after reviewing its strategy for the case Thursday night, the government decided to not rely on the wiretaps recorded by Italian police in Canada in 2019 and told DeMaria's lawyers as a courtesy and to save time at the hearing.
