Even before having started, the general meeting of TotalEnergie announced itself under tension this Wednesday.
Despite tight security ahead of the event, more than a hundred activists from environmental NGOs - including Greenpeace, Alternatiba, and Friends of the Earth - blocked the main entrance to the venue, where the assembly in Paris, to protest against the policy pursued by the group, affecting ecosystems.
“Totally irresponsible” or “we are here, even if Total does not want us, we are here”, shouted the activists under the smoke bombs.
Some sat on the ground handcuffed to each other, while others unfurled a large banner “stop fossil fuel projects”, removed by security.
The latter also denounce the presence of the group in Russia, where it operates in particular liquefied natural gas.
Activists surrounded by police
About 20 police surrounded them around 11 a.m., about an hour after the meeting had started.
The CEO of TotalEnergies Patrick Pouyanné, opened the meeting, considering that the meeting “can take place normally because a certain number of shareholders are present”.
In particular, they will have to decide, in an advisory vote, on the group's climate plan.
💣 @TotalEnergies is a danger to climate, peace and human rights.
Total is France's leading polluter: its carbon footprint is greater than that of France, with around 460 million tonnes of CO2 emitted per year.
#BlocageTotal pic.twitter.com/OUmAU5Ir3N
— ANV-COP21 (@AnvCop21) May 25, 2022
The NGOs are calling for “concrete and immediate commitments” from TotalEnergies (…) and the end of any new fossil fuel project”.
Shareholders must be convinced to “vote against the false climate plan of TotalEnergies”, indicated before the action Eva Sadoun, co-president of the Impact France movement.
But from within too, anger is brewing.
Several small shareholders are determined to influence the climate orientation of the group, a movement observed in multiple large companies, whether in the energy sector, banks or others.
Shell's GA on Tuesday was suspended for two hours because of activists inside.
Angry shareholders
A collective of TotalEnergies shareholders, representing 0.78% of the capital, had filed a resolution asking the group to comply with the Paris climate agreement.
The resolution will ultimately not be placed on the agenda, the Board of Directors having rejected it.
The group had explained that it was legally for the board of directors to define "the strategy, particularly in terms of energy transition".
The collective had seized the Financial Markets Authority (AMF), which declared itself last Wednesday not competent.
"There are shareholders who are becoming aware of the climate emergency but in general they are still too passive," said Edina Ifticene, campaign manager for Greenpeace France.
Towards the exploitation of new deposits
TotalEnergies says it is aiming, like many companies, for carbon neutrality by the middle of the century, and is committed, among other objectives, to reducing by more than 30%, compared to 2015, the emissions released by products. tankers it sells.
And it invests in renewables.
Read alsoZero carbon target by 2050: what efforts to achieve it?
But the major continues to say that it wants to continue to meet the demand for gas and oil as long as there is, and that it will continue to develop new fields.
Its CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, only said that TotalEnergies' oil production peak would be reached in the 2020s, believing that an immediate shutdown would be drastic.