Santos’ aggressive tactics against environmental defenders are more proof that polluters should pay, not people

In 2022, the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) sued fossil fuel giant Santos on behalf of Tiwi Islanders, representing Simon Munkara. They alleged that Santos’ offshore Barossa gas project could impact culturally significant sites and had not been adequately assessed.

The Barossa project is anticipated to release 380 million tonnes of climate pollution over its 25-year lifespan.

They lost the case, and now Santos has pursued the EDO for its legal costs. This week, the EDO agreed to pay a whopping $9 million dollars.

These are unusual and aggressive legal tactics seemingly intended to intimidate those opposing its actions and they’re part of a worrying global trend. Rather than paying up for the damages they are responsible for, big gas corporations like Santos are using lawsuits to try to silence those standing up to protect the Earth.

What’s a SLAPP?

Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation, or SLAPP, lawsuits are designed to intimidate and silence those working in the public interest on matters including civil rights and the environment. The EU recently introduced an anti-SLAPP directive to protect against meritless lawsuits by big corporations, but we don’t have this protection in Australia.

Santos’ behaviour in this case is having a similar silencing effect.

Katrina Bullock, General Counsel at Greenpeace Australia Pacific had this to say:

“In response to the community’s efforts, Santos has employed aggressive legal tactics seemingly intended to intimidate those opposing its actions. The company has sought internal documents from charities that voiced support for the case, potentially to pursue them for costs. Furthermore, it has aggressively targeted the Tiwi Islanders’ legal team, relentlessly seeking costs against them. These actions risk discouraging communities from using legal avenues to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their harmful practices.”

The UN has already warned that climate victories may face a backlash from corporations and this is indeed what is happening – at a scale that Greenpeace has never seen before. Shell, TotalEnergies, and ENI and Energy Transfer (ET) have all filed lawsuits against Greenpeace around the world in the last two years, with ET alone, suing for US$300 million.

Companies like Santos, Shell, ENI, TotalEnergies and Energy Transfer know their time is up, and they’re growing increasingly desperate.

Around the world, Big Oil is using lawsuits to crush opposition by attempting to intimidate and silence Indigenous peoples, activists, concerned citizens, NGOs and journalists for standing up for the environment, clean air and water, and the safety of their communities.

If we don’t speak out against SLAPP suits when we see them, it sets a dangerous precedent that corporations can harm people and the planet without consequences and poses a very real threat to the core value of free speech.

Polluters should pay up, not the people who call them out

Just 78 companies are responsible for over 70% of the toxic carbon pollution that’s driving climate change¹, but they’re leaving the rest of us to foot the bill for the massive cost of disasters they’ve helped to cause. Everyday Australians are currently paying $13 billion per year to clean up the impacts of climate change.

For a group like the EDO, paying $9 million in costs is hugely significant. But for Santos? Let’s not forget that in 2022 alone, Santos raked in over US$3.8 billion².

We shouldn’t let billion-dollar companies profit off polluting while going after environmental defenders for costs. Coal, oil and gas mining companies are the biggest contributors to climate change. They cause the damage – they should be paying to fix it.

Attacks from companies like Santos are an attack on all of us who demand clean air, safe water, the right to protest and corporate accountability. For more than 50 years, people like us have refused to back down when powerful forces threaten our natural world and jeopardise our future.

We won’t stop until they stop.

¹Carbon Majors Report
²Gross profit for the year 31 December 2022 was US$3,890 million