scuffles before a general meeting under high tension

2023-05-25 22:17:43

Clashes between police and demonstrators for the climate broke out on Friday morning May 26, with forceful use of tear gas, near the Parisian hall where the Annual General Meeting of TotalÉnergies is to be held.

After BP and Shell, now is the turn of TotalÉnergies: the French hydrocarbon giant is preparing for an electric meeting, targeted by a coalition of associations which threatens to block it, but also by some of its shareholders who disagree with its climate policy.

At dawn, dozens of climate demonstrators tried to enter the stretch of street passing in front of the Salle Pleyel, in the heart of the beautiful Parisian districts. A dozen of them, who had sat in front of the entrance, were dislodged by the police. After three warnings in less than a minute by loudspeaker, the police threw tear gas.

Huge profits

The meeting, which a coalition of NGOs has called for blocking, comes at the end of a stormy GA season, where actions have multiplied against large groups, such as competitors Shell and BP or the bank Barclays, accused of financing the expansion of hydrocarbon projects.

All against a backdrop of staggering profits: together, the majors BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron and TotalÉnergies posted more than 40 billion dollars in profits this quarter, after a grandiose year 2022.

A sign of the expected tensions, TotalÉnergies will ban shareholders and journalists on Friday from using their mobile phones, forcing them to leave certain personal effects at the entrance. The group wants above all to avoid the chaotic scenario of last year when NGO activists prevented shareholders from entering the AG.

CEO salary

The authorities expect the presence of 200 to 400 people who “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 which fuels climate and social injustice”they denounce.

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), or 85% of its carbon footprint.

The coalition of shareholders is asking it to align its emission reduction targets with the 2015 Paris Agreement, in order to limit global warming to +1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era. Among these 17 investors, who hold nearly 1.5% of TotalÉnergies, are La Banque Postale AM, Edmond de Rothschild AM and La Financière de l’échiquier.

Direct emissions

The group recommends voting against, considering the resolution “contrary to the interests” of TotalEnergies, “of its shareholders and customers”. The major will nevertheless promote its efforts for the climate and calls on its shareholders to “vote in favour” of its own climate resolution.

This official strategy focuses above all on its direct emissions, resulting from its operations, and those related to the energy it consumes (so-called « scope 1 et 2 »). Even if the group does not plan to drastically reduce its direct emissions in the decade, it intends to devote a third of its investments to low-carbon energies and reach 100 GW of renewable electricity capacity by 2030.