The Total group was aware of the impact of the combustion of fossil fuels on the climate, and therefore of the harmful consequences of its activities, from the 1970s, according to a scientific article published on Wednesday, October 20.

Christophe Bonneuil, research director at CNRS, Pierre-Louis Choquet, sociologist at Sciences Po, and Benjamin Franta, researcher in history at the American University of Stanford, studied the archives of the oil group, now TotalEnergies, as well as internal reviews and interviews, according to this article published in the journal Global Environmental Change.

A publication in the journal of Total, in 1971, explained that the combustion of fossil fuels leads "to the release of enormous quantities of carbon dioxide" and to an increase in the quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

A "rather worrying increase (...)".

However, the group ignored this subject, the researchers note.

In the mid-1980s, the American giant Exxon, through the Environmental Association of the Petroleum Industry (Ipieca), led an international campaign by oil groups to "challenge climate science and weaken controls on fossil fuels ", continue the researchers.

"Factory of ignorance"

Bernard Tramier, director of the environment at Elf (acquired by Total) then Total from 1983 to 2003, quoted in the article, recounts having alerted Elf's executive committee in 1986, saying: "It is therefore obvious that the oil industry will once again have to prepare to defend itself. "

"The novelty is that we thought that only Exxon and the American groups were in duplicity. We realize that our French oil champions participated in this phenomenon at least between 1987 and 1994", explains to AFP Christophe Bonneuil, speaking of a "factory of ignorance".

At the same time, Total and Elf put "pressure, with success, against policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions", while seeking to acquire environmental credibility through voluntary commitments, argues the Wednesday study.

At the end of the 1990s, the approach changed.

UN climate experts, the IPCC, publish their first report.

The Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 led to the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The Kyoto protocol was adopted in 1997.

"The French oil industry stops publicly questioning climate science, but continues to increase its investments in oil and gas production", to insist on "uncertainty, minimizing (climate) urgency, and to divert Attention to fossil fuels as the primary cause of global "global warming," continue the researchers.

Change of strategy in the 2000s

In the mid-2000s, a new strategy.

The then CEO, Thierry Desmaret, recognizes the reality of climate change and the conclusions of the IPCC.

Total "begins to promote a division of roles between science and business, where science describes climate change and businesses claim to solve it", thus claiming its legitimacy to influence public and business policies and highlighting its " energetic transition".

In a response sent to AFP before the publication of the scientific article, the group declared: "TotalEnergies' knowledge of climate risk was in no way different from the knowledge emanating from scientific publications of the time (the 1970s, Editor's note). "

"The leaders of Total (...) recognized the existence of climate change and the link with the activities of the oil industry" and since 2015, the company aims "to be a major player in the energy transition" , he continues.

"It is imperative that the Parliament seizes these revelations by launching a commission of inquiry", ask the NGOs Notre affaires à tous and 350.org in a joint press release, also criticizing the fact that "TotalEnergies still intends to increase its capacities of production and development of new devastating projects in protected areas ".

A 2017 study showed that the US oil group ExxonMobil had known since the 1980s that climate change was real and caused by human activities.

But the group has struggled for years to maintain doubts about this reality, thus deceiving its shareholders and citizens.

With AFP

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