[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
Thierry Leveque
PARIS
Tue Mar 30, 2010 12:06pm EDT
French court upholds oil spill ruling vs Total
｛フランスの裁判所、トータル社に油流出法を適用｝
(Reuters) - A French appeals court on Tuesday upheld key elements of a verdict against oil giant Total over a disastrous 1999 oil spill in a ruling with wide implications for the global oil industry's environmental responsibilities.
Total was found guilty in 2008 for the damage caused when the Erika, an aging oil tanker it had chartered, broke apart and sank in a winter storm off Brittany in 1999, spilling 20,000 tonnes of crude oil.
An oil slick covered 400 km (250 miles) of French coastline, killing thousands of birds and marine animals.
"In failing to apply precautionary rules, Total was at fault for imprudence in relation to the causality of the shipwreck," the appeals court judgment said.
The court confirmed the criminal responsibility of Total, which was fined 375,000 euros in the first case, as well as that of three other defendants, who were also fined.
The ruling also upheld the legal notion that damage to the general environment is on a par with economic harm to individuals or corporations for which companies must pay compensation.
"It means in future we will have the ability to assign a value to living things that have no commercial worth," said Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, president of the League for the Protection of Birds. "It is a considerable advance. They won't be able to behave tomorrow as they behaved before."
Contrary to the earlier ruling, Tuesday's judgment did not assign civil responsibility to Total, meaning it would in theory not be forced to pay damages and interest to victims in the case. But it said that the group could not reclaim payments it had already made.
DAMAGES PAYOUT INCREASED
The 2008 ruling ordered Total to pay 192 million euros ($259.4 million) in damages to environmental groups, local governments and others involved in the clean-up operation, and the bulk of this has already been paid.
On Tuesday, the appeals court raised the sum to 200 million euros but ordered the surplus over the original award to be paid by Rina, the Italian shipping certification body that gave the Erika its certificate of seaworthiness.
Total said it would consider the ruling over the coming days before deciding whether to appeal in the Cour de Cassation, the highest court in the French judiciary.
Despite lodging an appeal against the 2008 ruling, the oil giant made a deal with 37 of the plaintiffs after the first trial and has paid them 170 million euros.
It had already spent more than 200 million euros on pumping the remainder of the crude oil from the wreck of the Erika and on treatment and cleanup operations.
The sums are relatively small for Total, one of France's biggest industrial groups, which made a net profit of 7.8 billion euros last year. The battle was more about legal principles and future liabilities than about money.
The group argued it could not be held responsible for the failings of RINA, which gave the decrepit Erika a clean bill of health. The Italian owners and the certifiers were convicted and fined in 2008.
The first judgment had strongly endorsed the argument that oil companies should be held responsible for the state of the tankers they used to ship their products. It also backed the idea of an "environmental responsibility" in such cases.
That could be used as a precedent by plaintiffs in other cases of environmental damage around the world.
($1=.7403 Euro)
(Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by David Cowell)
[Green Business]
[Green Business | China | COP15]
OSLO
Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:32am EDT
Over 110 nations back Copenhagen climate deal
｛110カ国余り、コペンハーゲンクライメイト取り引きを支援｝
(Reuters) - More than 110 nations including top greenhouse gas emitters led by China and the United States back the non-binding Copenhagen Accord for combating climate change, according to a first formal U.N. list on Wednesday.
The list, of countries from Albania to Zambia, helps end weeks of uncertainty about support for the deal, agreed at an acrimonious summit in the Danish capital in December. The list was compiled by the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat.
The accord, falling short of a binding treaty sought by many nations, sets a goal of limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit). But it does not spell out what each nation has to do.
It also promises almost $10 billion a year in aid for poor nations from 2010-12, rising to at least $100 billion from 2020 to help them slow emissions growth and cope with impacts such as floods, droughts and rising sea levels.
Apart from China and the United States, the list also includes top emitters such as the European Union, Russia, India and Japan. Their names were listed at the top of the 3-page text, following up an agreement in Copenhagen.
The accord was merely "noted" by the 194-nation summit after objections by a handful of developing nations including Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Sudan.
The United Nations then asked all countries to say if they wanted to be listed.
Many big emerging economies were initially reluctant to sign up after the deal failed to gain universal support, even though the original text was worked out by President Barack Obama with leaders of nations including China, India, Brazil and South Africa.
They also want the 1992 U.N. Climate Convention to guide U.N. negotiations on a new treaty, reckoning it more clearly spells out that rich nations have to take the lead.
Nations not on the list include many OPEC nations such as Saudi Arabia, which fear a loss of oil revenues if the world shifts to renewable energies, and some small island states which fear rising sea levels.
(Reporting by Alister Doyle, editing by Dominic Evans)
[Green Business]
Thierry Leveque
PARIS
Tue Mar 30, 2010 12:06pm EDT
French court upholds oil spill ruling vs Total
｛フランスの裁判所、トータル社に油流出法を適用｝
(Reuters) - A French appeals court on Tuesday upheld key elements of a verdict against oil giant Total over a disastrous 1999 oil spill in a ruling with wide implications for the global oil industry's environmental responsibilities.
Total was found guilty in 2008 for the damage caused when the Erika, an aging oil tanker it had chartered, broke apart and sank in a winter storm off Brittany in 1999, spilling 20,000 tonnes of crude oil.
An oil slick covered 400 km (250 miles) of French coastline, killing thousands of birds and marine animals.
"In failing to apply precautionary rules, Total was at fault for imprudence in relation to the causality of the shipwreck," the appeals court judgment said.
The court confirmed the criminal responsibility of Total, which was fined 375,000 euros in the first case, as well as that of three other defendants, who were also fined.
The ruling also upheld the legal notion that damage to the general environment is on a par with economic harm to individuals or corporations for which companies must pay compensation.
"It means in future we will have the ability to assign a value to living things that have no commercial worth," said Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, president of the League for the Protection of Birds. "It is a considerable advance. They won't be able to behave tomorrow as they behaved before."
Contrary to the earlier ruling, Tuesday's judgment did not assign civil responsibility to Total, meaning it would in theory not be forced to pay damages and interest to victims in the case. But it said that the group could not reclaim payments it had already made.
DAMAGES PAYOUT INCREASED
The 2008 ruling ordered Total to pay 192 million euros ($259.4 million) in damages to environmental groups, local governments and others involved in the clean-up operation, and the bulk of this has already been paid.
On Tuesday, the appeals court raised the sum to 200 million euros but ordered the surplus over the original award to be paid by Rina, the Italian shipping certification body that gave the Erika its certificate of seaworthiness.
Total said it would consider the ruling over the coming days before deciding whether to appeal in the Cour de Cassation, the highest court in the French judiciary.
Despite lodging an appeal against the 2008 ruling, the oil giant made a deal with 37 of the plaintiffs after the first trial and has paid them 170 million euros.
It had already spent more than 200 million euros on pumping the remainder of the crude oil from the wreck of the Erika and on treatment and cleanup operations.
The sums are relatively small for Total, one of France's biggest industrial groups, which made a net profit of 7.8 billion euros last year. The battle was more about legal principles and future liabilities than about money.
The group argued it could not be held responsible for the failings of RINA, which gave the decrepit Erika a clean bill of health. The Italian owners and the certifiers were convicted and fined in 2008.
The first judgment had strongly endorsed the argument that oil companies should be held responsible for the state of the tankers they used to ship their products. It also backed the idea of an "environmental responsibility" in such cases.
That could be used as a precedent by plaintiffs in other cases of environmental damage around the world.
($1=.7403 Euro)
(Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by David Cowell)
[Green Business]
[Green Business | China | COP15]
OSLO
Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:32am EDT
Over 110 nations back Copenhagen climate deal
｛110カ国余り、コペンハーゲンクライメイト取り引きを支援｝
(Reuters) - More than 110 nations including top greenhouse gas emitters led by China and the United States back the non-binding Copenhagen Accord for combating climate change, according to a first formal U.N. list on Wednesday.
The list, of countries from Albania to Zambia, helps end weeks of uncertainty about support for the deal, agreed at an acrimonious summit in the Danish capital in December. The list was compiled by the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat.
The accord, falling short of a binding treaty sought by many nations, sets a goal of limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit). But it does not spell out what each nation has to do.
It also promises almost $10 billion a year in aid for poor nations from 2010-12, rising to at least $100 billion from 2020 to help them slow emissions growth and cope with impacts such as floods, droughts and rising sea levels.
Apart from China and the United States, the list also includes top emitters such as the European Union, Russia, India and Japan. Their names were listed at the top of the 3-page text, following up an agreement in Copenhagen.
The accord was merely "noted" by the 194-nation summit after objections by a handful of developing nations including Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Sudan.
The United Nations then asked all countries to say if they wanted to be listed.
Many big emerging economies were initially reluctant to sign up after the deal failed to gain universal support, even though the original text was worked out by President Barack Obama with leaders of nations including China, India, Brazil and South Africa.
They also want the 1992 U.N. Climate Convention to guide U.N. negotiations on a new treaty, reckoning it more clearly spells out that rich nations have to take the lead.
Nations not on the list include many OPEC nations such as Saudi Arabia, which fear a loss of oil revenues if the world shifts to renewable energies, and some small island states which fear rising sea levels.
(Reporting by Alister Doyle, editing by Dominic Evans)
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