CLIMATE campaigners welcomed a ruling by Italy’s highest court on Tuesday to allow a case to be brought against Italian energy company Eni and its government shareholders.

Greenpeace called the decision a victory for efforts to pursue climate justice in Italy.

The Court of Cassation rejected the company’s motions to dismiss the lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds and ordered the case to be heard on its merits by a Rome tribunal.

Eni said that it was greatly satisfied with the decision, and said it expected that the Rome court would ultimately “dismantle” the climate activists’ claims of responsibility.

In 2023, Greenpeace, environmental group ReCommon and a dozen Italian citizens had sued Eni and its two main government shareholders — the Italian Finance Ministry and development bank — seeking damages for what they said were the effects of climate change.

The plaintiffs cited their fundamental rights enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights, as well as Italy’s ratification of various international climate accords and Eni’s stated commitment to reaching climate reduction targets.

The energy company and the government sought to dismiss the suit on jurisdictional and other grounds, but the court ruled that the case could go ahead.

For more than a century, scientists have known that large quantities of greenhouse gases, released from the burning of fossil fuels, go up into the atmosphere and heat the planet, leading to higher temperatures, rising sea levels and extreme weather events that are both more frequent and more intense.

Greenpeace and ReCommon said: “No-one, not even a colossus like Eni, can escape its responsibilities anymore.”

Eni said that it welcomed the ruling.

“The proceedings can finally resume before the Court of Rome, where the unfounded theories put forward by Greenpeace and ReCommon will be dismantled,” the company said in a statement.

Italy’s Finance Ministry declined to comment.