- Date filed
- 21 May 2024
- Keywords
- Countries of harm
- Current status
-
Filed
- Sector
- NCP
Allegations
On 21 May 2024, Greenpeace in Zentral- und Osteuropa (Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe) and Fridays for Future Österreich (Fridays for Future Austria) filed a complaint to the Austrian NCP against natural gas company OMV Aktiengesellschaft. The complaint concerns OMV’s investments in fossil fuel infrastructure in Austria, Norway, Romania, and the UAE. They allege that OMV is not complying with Chapter VI (Environment) of the OECD Guidelines, specifically paragraph 1b, which sets out that companies are responsible for establishing and maintaining an environmental management system, including carrying out risk-based due diligence for adverse environmental impacts, including through measurable objectives, targets, and strategies that are science-based, consistent with national policies and international commitments, and informed by best practice. They allege that OMV’s expansion of its gas business and investment in gas exploration does not proactively avoid adverse environmental impacts.
The complainants provide the example of OMV’s planned Neptun Deep project, a joint venture involving OMV’s Romanian subsidiary OMV Petrom and Romanian state-owned Romgaz, located off the Romanian coast, which is intended to make Romania the largest fossil gas producer in the EU. They criticise the assessment of the project’s carbon footprint and the risk of endangering biodiversity in the Black Sea.
The complainants call on OMV to stop all new fossil fuel exploration and development projects, including Neptun Deep.
Relevant OECD Guidelines
More details
- Defendant
- Company in violation
- Complainants
- Affected people