Italian oil company Eni is facing the country's first climate lawsuit, with environmental groups accusing the company of using "lobbying and greenwashing" to shift more fossil fuels despite knowing about the risks posed by its product since the 1970s. Greenpeace Italy and Italian law group ReCommon aim to build on a similar case targeting Anglo-Dutch oil company Royal Dutch Shell in the Netherlands to force Eni to reduce its carbon emissions by 45 % by 2030. "The urgency to act on the climate crisis has prompted us to file Italy's first climate lawsuit against the country's largest energy company," said Matteo Ceruti, the plaintiffs' lawyer. The allegations stem in part from a study commissioned by Eni between 1969 and 1970 from its Isvet research center and shared with the Guardian by the non-profit climate intelligence service DeSmog. The report made it clear that the growing use of fossil fuels without control could lead to a climate crisis within a few decades. “[C]albon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by an average of 10 % globally over the past century due to increased use [of fossil fuels], according to a recent UN Secretary-General's report; by the year 2000, this increase could reach 25 %, with "catastrophic" consequences for the climate," the report said. (Stella Levantesi in Rome, The Guardian)