Nanterre (AFP)

Twenty associations and communities including Bayonne, Grenoble, Nanterre or the NGO Sherpa, who believe they are suffering from global warming, have planned to summon the oil giant Total on Tuesday for climate "inaction", their lawyers said on Monday. AFP.

These communities and associations ask Total to present a vigilance plan that takes into account the reality of the impacts of its activities and the "risks of serious damage to the climate system" that they induce. In vain, they say in a statement.

"We have ambitious requests from Total" with this "first climate action targeting a multinational company based on the scientific work of the IPCC" (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), said Sébastien Mabile, l 'one of the plaintiffs' lawyers.

"This is the first step to force a multinational to apply the Paris agreement" on the 2015 climate, stressed his colleague Me François de Cambiaire, saying that "we can make this agreement binding thanks to the law on the duty of vigilance "of March 27, 2017.

In March 2019, Total had published a vigilance plan, but the authorities considered that the measures announced were "clearly insufficient" in view of the objectives set by the Paris agreement.

The agreement urged states to limit the rise in average global temperature well below 2 ° C from pre-industrial levels, or even 1.5 ° C.

The CEO of Total said last year that his group was "open to dialogue" with a view to "initiating concrete initiatives with local authorities who so wish".

From June 2019, the cities of Arcueil (Val-de-Marne), Bayonne, Bègles (Gironde), Bize-Minervois (Aude), Champneuville (Meuse), Correns (Var), Grenoble, La Possession (Reunion), Mouans-Sartoux (Alpes-Maritimes), Nanterre, Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis) and Vitry-le-François (Marne), as well as the public territorial establishment Est Ensemble Grand Paris, and the associations Notre Affaire à Tous, Sherpa , Les Eco Maires, and ZEA had warned Total "to take the necessary measures to prevent the major risks linked to climate change", they said in the press release.

Since then, the Center Val de Loire region and the France Nature Environment federation have joined the approach to denounce the "inaction of Total", it is specified.

A press conference in the presence of several representatives of the applicants is scheduled for Tuesday morning in Paris to clarify the contours of the summons.

This new procedure is part of a multiplication of complaints filed in several States concerning the climate.

© 2020 AFP