Shareholder Sues Santos Over "Net-Zero" Claims, Under Australian Deceptive Business Practices Law

A world-first greenwashing case that seeks to hold oil and gas company Santos accountable for its net zero commitments began in the federal court today, brought by one of its own shareholders, the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR).

The organisation claims Santos did not have a proper basis for saying it had a clear pathway to reduce emissions by 26% to 30% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2040, which constituted misleading or deceptive conduct in breach of Australian corporate and consumer laws. “We’ll be submitting that Santos lacked reasonable grounds for making these statements,” the centre’s barrister, Noel Hutley SC, said as a 13-day trial began on Monday.

In addition to emissions reductions targets, the case was expected to focus on the company’s representations related to its description of natural gas as a “clean fuel” and representations of blue hydrogen (produced using natural gas with carbon capture and storage) as “clean” and “zero emissions”.

Hutley told the court Santos’s climate change “plan” was not a plan at all, but rather “little more than a series of speculations … cobbled together in a matter of weeks”. The centre holds shares in firms such as Santos to try to force them to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, an international treaty on climate change that was signed by the majority of nations, including Australia, in 2016.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/28/santos-sued-shareholder-greenwashing-case