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For TotalEnergies, a general assembly under high voltage this Friday

2023-05-26T05:00:14.866Z

Highlights: The authorities expect the presence of 200 to 400 activists, who intend to prevent the holding of the assembly. By dawn, several dozen of them were already there. The meeting comes at the end of a season of stormy AGMs, where activists have multiplied actions against large groups. TotalEnergies will ban shareholders and journalists from using their mobile phones, and will force them to leave some personal belongings at the entrance. The group will nevertheless highlight its efforts for the climate and calls on its shareholders to "vote in favor" of its own climate resolution.


The authorities expect the presence of 200 to 400 activists, who intend to prevent the holding of the assembly. By dawn, several dozen of them were already there.


After BP and Shell, comes the turn of TotalEnergies. The French hydrocarbon giant is preparing to live an electric general meeting Friday morning, targeted by a coalition of associations that 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 season of stormy AGMs, where activists have multiplied actions 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, majors BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron and TotalEnergies posted more than $40 billion in profits this quarter, after a grand 2022. In a sign of the tensions over the meeting scheduled for 10am, TotalEnergies will ban shareholders and journalists from using their mobile phones, and will force them to leave some personal belongings at the entrance. TotalEnergies especially wants to avoid the chaotic scenario of last year when NGO activists prevented shareholders from entering the AGM.

Up to 400 activists expected

This year, a coalition of NGOs is explicitly calling for blocking the planned meeting at Salle Pleyel in the beautiful Parisian neighborhoods. The authorities expect 200 to 400 activists to be present. They "absolutely want to prevent the holding of the AGM," according to a police source. "Total's AGM will not take place," the signatories 350.org, Alternatiba, Friends of the Earth, ANV-COP21, Attac, Greenpeace, Scientists in Rebellion and XR immediately warned in a forum at the end of April. "This general assembly plans to perpetuate the strategy of the oil company: more fossil projects and an unfair distribution of superprofits that fuels climate and social injustice," they denounce.

At dawn, the first clashes between police and climate protesters 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 floor in front of the entrance of the room were dislodged by the police, who were closing the section of the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Dozens of protesters have since been installed to try to prevent the holding of the GA, according to calls for demonstrations broadcast beforehand.

Among the hot topics, the approximately 1.5 million individual shareholders, present or online, are called to vote on a consultative resolution from the activist shareholder organization Follow This, which mainly tackles indirect CO2 emissions. 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 is asking 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 own nearly 1.5% of TotalEnergies, include La Banque PostaleAM, Edmond de Rothschild AM, La Financière de l'Echiquier.

The group recommends voting against, judging the resolution "contrary to the interests" of TotalEnergies, "its shareholders and its customers". The major will nevertheless highlight its efforts for the climate and calls on its shareholders to "vote in favor" of its own climate resolution. This official strategy focuses mainly on its direct emissions, from its operations and those related to the energy it consumes (so-called "scope 1 and 2" perimeters). Submitted for the third year to shareholder approval, it includes a strengthening of commitments, such as not exceeding 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 policy in low-carbon energies, intending to devote a third of its investments to it and reach 100 GW of renewable electricity capacity by 2030. "It is the revenues from hydrocarbons that allow us to invest massively and develop renewables," CEO Patrick Pouyanné said Wednesday in an interview with Challenges magazine.

The group is present in many liquefied natural gas and oil projects in the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Papua and Uganda, with the controversial Eacop heated pipeline project becoming a media symbol of the anti-oil struggle. "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 (19.12 billion euros) in 2022, its taxes in France or the salary of the CEO. A 10% increase in his remuneration for 2023 is also on the agenda of the AGM.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2023-05-26

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