BERTRAND GUAY / AFP
Climate activists blocking access to the Salle Pleyel, in Paris, on May 25, 2023. A meeting of shareholders of TotalEnergies is scheduled there on May 26.
TOTALENERGIES – After BP and Shell, it’s the turn of TotalEnergies. The French hydrocarbon giant is preparing for an electric general meeting this Friday, May 26 in the morning, targeted before its opening by scuffles between protesters for the climate and the police, while shareholders are also in disagreement with its climate policy. .
From dawn, dozens of demonstrators for the climate tried to enter the stretch of street passing in front of the Salle Pleyel, in the beautiful districts of Paris.
A dozen of them, who had sat in front of the entrance, were dislodged by the police and scuffles took place, as you can see in the pictures below. The police used tear gas canisters to dislodge the demonstrators.
A coalition of NGOs called for the meeting to be blocked and dozens of activists are now seated at the entrances to rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, singing in particular “what we want is to overthrow Total” And “one, two and three degrees, it’s Total that we have to thank”.
LCI journalist Paul Larrouturou also said on Twitter that his colleague Harmony Pondy Nyaga had been “thrown to the ground with her camera by a security guard then a gendarme while she[était] clearly marked as a journalist”, as you can see here in these pictures.
The meeting comes at the end of a stormy GA season, where activists have stepped up actions against large groups, as among competitors Shell and BP or Barclays bank, accused of financing the expansion of hydrocarbon projects.
Mobile phones prohibited during the GA
All against a backdrop of staggering profits: together, the majors BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron and TotalEnergies posted more than 40 billion dollars in profits this quarter, after a grandiose year 2022.
A sign of the expected tensions, TotalEnergies will prohibit shareholders and journalists from using their mobile phones, and will force 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. The authorities expect the presence of 200 to 400 activists, 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, GreenpeaceScientists 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 1.5 million individual shareholders, present or online, are called to vote on an advisory resolution from the activist shareholder organization Follow This, which mainly tackles indirect CO2 emissions. .
In other words, those related to the use of petroleum 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.
10% increase in the CEO’s salary in sight
Among this coalition of 17 investors who hold nearly 1.5% of TotalEnergies are La banque PostaleAM, Edmond de Rotschild AM and La Financière de l’Échiquier.
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 linked to the energy it consumes (scopes known as the “scopes 1 and 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.
“It is the income from hydrocarbons that allows us to invest massively and develop renewables”argued CEO Patrick Pouyanné on Wednesday in a magazine interview Challenges.
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. became a publicized 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 dollars (19.12 billion euros) in 2022, its taxes in France or the CEO’s salary. A 10% increase in his remuneration for 2023 is also on the agenda of the GA.
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