Paris (AFP)
A resolution brought by eleven investors to force Total to more ambitious climate objectives, but fought by the management, was rejected by the shareholders Friday during the general assembly of the oil and gas group.
This resolution, supported by La Banque Postale Asset Management, Crédit Mutuel and even Meeschaert, was put on the agenda because the shareholders supporting it exceeded the threshold of 0.5% of the capital.
But she did not have the support of the company's board of directors.
"It is rejected by a very large majority since it is rejected by 83.20%," announced CEO Patrick Pouyanné, at the annual general meeting of shareholders, which was held behind closed doors for health reasons.
The NGO Reclaim Finance for its part judged that the score of 16.8% in favor of the resolution marked a "historic turning point".
The objective of the resolution was "to modify the statutes of the oil group in order to strengthen the contribution of its economic model to the achievement of the Paris Agreement on the climate", had explained the management company Meeschaert, which coordinated the shareholder initiative.
They asked Total for an action plan "to reduce in absolute value its greenhouse gas emissions" including "indirect emissions, insofar as the use of products sold represents 85% of greenhouse gas emissions greenhouse ".
Total recently announced a new goal of "carbon neutrality by 2050". But the group is committed to neutrality on the use of its products by the end consumer (so-called "scope 3") in Europe only.
"Adopting the proposed resolution would make your company responsible for programs over which it is not able to act, only customers having direct control over them," said the board of directors.
Patrick Pouyanné also mentioned these indirect emissions in the introduction to the GA: "We are not responsible for them because they depend on the energy consumption choices of our customers".
"Total does not make planes, does not make cars, does not make cement and it is not Total that decides whether a plane will use kerosene or electricity or hydrogen to fly", he argued.
© 2020 AFP