Greenpeace must pay nearly €613m over US pipeline protests, jury says

Euronews

20-03-2025

Environmental group Greenpeace must pay more than $660 million (€606 million) in damages for defamation and other claims brought by a pipeline company in connection with protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline's construction in North Dakota, a jury found on Wednesday (19 March).
Dallas-based Energy Transfer and subsidiary Dakota Access had accused Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA and funding arm Greenpeace Fund Inc. of defamation, trespass, nuisance, civil conspiracy and other acts.
Greenpeace USA was found liable for all counts, while the others were found liable for some. The damages, which total nearly $666.9 million (€613 million), will be spread out across the three entities.
The jury found Greenpeace USA must pay the bulk of the damages, nearly $404 million (€371 million), while Greenpeace Fund Inc. and Greenpeace International would each pay roughly $131 million(€120 million).
Greenpeace said earlier that a large award to the pipeline company would threaten to bankrupt the organisation.
Following the nine-person jury's verdict, Greenpeace's senior legal adviser said the group's work 'is never going to stop.'
'That's the really important message today, and we're just walking out and we're going to get together and figure out what our next steps are,' Deepa Padmanabha told reporters outside the courthouse.
The organisation later said it plans to appeal the decision.
'The fight against Big Oil is not over today," Greenpeace International General Counsel Kristin Casper said. "We know that the law and the truth are on our side.'
She said the group will see Energy Transfer in court in July in Amsterdam in an anti-intimidation lawsuit filed there last month.
Energy Transfer called Wednesday's verdict a 'win' for 'Americans who understand the difference between the right to free speech and breaking the law.'
'While we are pleased that Greenpeace has been held accountable for their actions against us, this win is really for the people of Mandan and throughout North Dakota who had to live through the daily harassment and disruptions caused by the protesters who were funded and trained by Greenpeace,' the company said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The company previously said the state court lawsuit was about Greenpeace not following the law, not free speech.
In a statement, Energy Transfer attorney Trey Cox said, 'This verdict clearly conveys that when this right to peacefully protest is abused in a lawless and exploitative manner, such actions will be held accountable.'
The case reaches back to protests in 2016 and 2017 against the Dakota Access Pipeline and its Missouri River crossing upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's reservation.
For years the tribe has opposed the line as a risk to its water supply.
The multistate pipeline transports about 5 per cent of the United States' daily oil production. It started transporting oil in mid-2017.
Cox had said Greenpeace carried out a scheme to stop the pipeline's construction. During opening statements, he alleged Greenpeace paid outsiders to come into the area and protest, sent blockade supplies, organised or led protester training, and made untrue statements about the project to stop it.
Attorneys for the Greenpeace entities had said there was no evidence to the claims, that Greenpeace employees had little or no involvement in the protests and the organisations had nothing to do with Energy Transfer's delays in construction or refinancing.
Climate change is impacting adolescent well-being in areas most affected by global warming, according to a new study undertaken in Madagascar.
Young people in rural areas of the country reported severe anxiety and depression related to fears about climate change.
The authors of the research, published in the Journal of Climate Change and Health, have called for mental health support to be built into climate adaptation efforts to help young people facing an uncertain future.
"Adolescents in Androy, southern Madagascar, speak of famine, fear, and futures stolen by drought and sandstorms,' says co-author Dr Nambinina Rasolomalala from the Catholic University of Madagascar.
'With crops failing and water scarce, many adolescents are forced to leave their communities to survive, while those who stay face hunger, lost education, and deep despair."
The threats to child and adolescent health posed by climate change are well-documented, the authors say. But there is limited research into its effects on mental health in the low- and middle-income countries that are most affected by the climate crisis.
The study, conducted by researchers at Trinity College Dublin, UCL, Queen Mary University of London, the Catholic University of Madagascar, and CBM Global, reveals that climate change is having a severe impact on adolescent mental health in southern Madagascar.
The study gathered survey data from 83 adolescents, alongside data from focus groups undertaken with 48 of those same adolescents, across six rural villages in March 2024.
Young people in the region report extremely high levels of anxiety, depression, and climate change worry, with many describing a sense of hopelessness about the future.
Participants described feeling powerless, with one adolescent saying, 'I have no idea what I can do to be happy' and another saying, 'Life is a misery'.
'Young people in southern Madagascar are the unwilling pioneers of the impact of climate change,' says lead author Dr Kristin Hadfield from Trinity College Dublin. 'They can provide important insights into the way climate changes impact on adolescent mental health.'
Hadfield adds that the research makes it clear how climate change is not just an environmental issue but a mental health issue as well.
'We found that chronic climate stressors - not just extreme weather events - are already shaping adolescent mental health,' she says. 'In higher-income countries, climate anxiety often focuses on future risks, but in Madagascar, young people are already living the reality.'
The study found that climate change affected adolescent mental health through three main pathways: loss of household resources, uncertainty about the future, and disruption of coping mechanisms.
Food insecurity is particularly severe - 90 per cent of households had run out of food in the past year, and 69 per cent of adolescents had gone an entire day without eating.
Many of those who responded to the survey expressed deep distress over their families' struggles, and most had witnessed people in their communities starve to death.
As one adolescent put it, "So many died […] there were many elders, but they died because of the malnutrition". Another said, "There is no water and when sunlight is burning, we are suffering".
Co-author Professor Isabelle Mareschal, from Queen Mary University of London, says the findings underline the importance of recognising the need to prepare for the psychological effects of climate, not just environmental.
'We hope that these findings can help inform interventions to improve mental health outcomes, with a focus on young people in low- and middle-income countries.'
The study was conducted in southern Madagascar's Grand Sud region, which is one of the areas most severely affected by climate change. In 2021 the region experienced what some consider to be the first climate change-induced famine in the world.