2023-05-26 10:58:07
The general assembly of TotalEnergies opened this Friday morning, despite attempts to block it by environmental activists who arrived at dawn.
After BP and Shell, comes the turn of TotalEnergies. The French hydrocarbon giant is preparing for an electric general meeting on Friday morning, targeted by a coalition of associations which threatens to block it, but also by some of its shareholders who disagree with its climate policy. The meeting comes at the end of a stormy GA season, where activists have stepped up actions against large groups, such as competitors Shell and BP or Barclays bank, accused of financing the expansion of hydrocarbon projects .
All this against a backdrop of staggering profits. Together, the majors BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron and TotalEnergies are posting more than $40 billion in profits this quarter, after a grandiose 2022. Sign of the tensions on the meeting scheduled for 10am, TotalEnergies will prohibit shareholders and journalists from using their mobile phones, and will force them to leave certain personal effects at the entrance. TotalEnergies especially wants to avoid the chaotic scenario of last year when NGO activists prevented shareholders from entering the AG.
Up to 400 activists expected
This year, a coalition of NGOs explicitly calls for blocking the meeting planned Salle Pleyel, in the beautiful districts of Paris. The authorities expect the presence of 200 to 400 activists. They “absolutely want to prevent the holding of the GA“, According to a police source. “Total’s AGM will not take place“, immediately warned at the end of April in a forum the signatories 350.org, Alternatiba, Friends of the Earth, ANV-COP21, Attac, Greenpeace, Scientists in rebellion and XR. “This general meeting plans to perpetuate the oil company’s strategy: ever more fossil projects and an unfair distribution of superprofits that fuels climate and social injustice“, they denounce.
At dawn, the first scuffles between police and climate demonstrators took place on Friday near the Salle Pleyel in Paris, where the general meeting of shareholders is to be held. A dozen activists who managed to sit on the ground in front of the entrance to the room were dislodged by the police, who cordoned off the section of rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Dozens of demonstrators have since been installed to try to prevent the holding of the GA, according to the calls to demonstrate broadcast upstream.
From 7 a.m., the police even had to use tear gas to try to dislodge demonstrators. “The government is once again complicit with the major polluters. Instead of protecting the population against climate catastrophe, he sends the police to throw grenades in the middle of a non-violent crowd“Explains the environmental collective Alternatiba on its social networks, ensuring”be there as long as necessary to denounce the crimes of Total».
While the shareholders of TotalEnergies arrive in dribs and drabs for the opening of the GA at 10 a.m., the activists massed in increasing numbers in front of the Salle Pleyel. “Even if Total does not want it, we are here“, they sing, brandishing signs to denounce the projects of TotalEnergies. Speaking into a microphone, one of the members of the citizen movement Alternatiba Paris is even obliged to call the demonstrators to order: “we are not here to harass shareholders».
On site, Jean-François Guillon, one of the members of the CA of Attac, explains that “Total is symbol“. For him, the grouptick all the boxes» with on one side «climaticide projectsand choosing tonot paying your fair share of taxon the other, not to mention “l’aspect social». «All citizen fights are united“, he launches. “We can applaud each other because we are very strong this morning, we are 500 activists“says a coordinator of the action at the microphone. Before adding on the subject of Total’s meetings: “Whenever they get together, we’ll be there».
Climate issues on the agenda
Among the hot topics, the nearly 1.5 million individual shareholders, present or online, are being called to vote on an advisory resolution from the activist shareholder organization Follow This, which primarily tackles indirect CO2. In other words, those related to the use of oil by its customers in cars or for heating (scope 3 in carbon accounting), the equivalent of 85% of its carbon footprint. The organization asks it to align its reduction targets with the 2015 Paris Agreement, in order to limit global warming to +1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era. Among this coalition of 17 investors who hold almost 1.5% of TotalEnergies are La banque PostaleAM, Edmond de Rotschild AM and La Financière de l’Echiquier.
The group recommends voting against, deeming the resolution “contrary to the interests» the TotalEnergies, «of its shareholders and customers“. The major will nevertheless promote its efforts for the climate and calls on its shareholders to “vote in favorof its own climate resolution. This official strategy focuses above all on its direct emissions, resulting from its operations and those linked to the energy it consumes (scopes known as the “scope 1 et 2“). Submitted for the third year to the approval of the shareholders, it includes a reinforcement of the commitments, such as not to exceed 38 MT of CO2 emissions in 2025 compared to 2015.
Even if the group does not plan to drastically reduce its direct emissions in the decade, it has an ambitious low-carbon energy policy, intending to devote a third of its investments to it and reach 100 GW of renewable electricity capacity by 2030.”It is the income from hydrocarbons that allows us to invest massively and develop renewables“, argued CEO Patrick Pouyanné on Wednesday in an interview with Challenges magazine.
The group is present in numerous liquefied natural gas and oil projects, in the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Papua and Uganda, with the controversial Eacop heated pipeline project having become a mediatised symbol of the fight against oil. “We did not know how to anticipate“Conceded to Challenges, Patrick Pouyanné, about this controversy, which adds to many others for the group, criticized for its record profit of 20.5 billion dollars (19.12 billion euros) in 2022, his taxes in France or the salary of the CEO. A 10% increase in his remuneration for 2023 is also on the agenda of the GA.
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