Paris (AFP)

Is Total doing enough for the climate?

Shareholders vote on the strategy of the hydrocarbon giant, which renames itself TotalEnergies to mark its diversification, while some investors urge it to act faster.

After general meetings dominated by the climate issue at its competitors Chevron, ExxonMobil or Shell, the management of the French group is submitting for the first time to a vote a consultative resolution on the climate.

Last year, eleven investors (La Banque Postale, Crédit Mutuel, Meeschaert ...) proposed a resolution to force Total to more ambitious climate objectives.

Fought by the management, it was then rejected by the shareholders but had all the same garnered 16.8% of favorable votes.

This time around, Total has taken the lead by promoting its goals for 2030 on the path to carbon neutrality targeted in 2050.

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With regard to energy products used by its customers (such as gasoline burned in cars), within a scope known as "scope 3", Total is committed, for example, to ensuring that emissions will have fallen worldwide by 2030 compared to 2015.

Criticizing the management's resolution, the NGOs Greenpeace and Reclaim Finance denounced a "diversionary strategy".

- "stop exploration" -

"We are not at all in front of a company in transition," criticizes Lucie Pinson, founder of Reclaim Finance, citing her new hydrocarbon production projects.

Total, for example, recently signed agreements for a large oil project in Uganda.

Several investors - who weigh little capital but are influential for some - have also announced that they would vote against the resolution of management.

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The management company Meeschaert AM will thus oppose it and demand "the end of the exploration of new oil and gas fields".

This while the International Energy Agency (IEA) has just urged the world to forget "now" any new exploration project to keep global warming under control.

Dutch fund Actiam also confirmed to AFP that he would be part of the rebels.

"The strategy is not up to the task: the means of achieving its objectives remain unclear given the current rates of production and investment in fossil fuels, still significantly higher than those in renewables," he notes. he.

The NGOs hope for 15% of negative votes, enough to mark at least one symbolic victory.

Reclaim Finance currently has seven shareholders planning to vote against the climate resolution.

- "Multi-energy company" -

In addition, 33 investors from the Climate Action 100+ coalition, committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, wrote to management asking them to clarify their strategy.

The decline in hydrocarbon production "must begin before 2030, in particular for oil", underline the signatories, who include Axa, Amundi or HSBC.

In an assessment of the "net zero emissions" strategy of certain companies in March, Climate Action 100+ estimated that Total did not or partially tick certain boxes.

The case of Total is not isolated: after having been criticized for a long time by environmentalists, companies in the sector are now under increasing pressure from investors.

At Shell, a resolution in favor of more ambitious goals - and not supported by management - recently got just over 30% of the vote.

Not to mention that the Dutch justice has demanded from the company that it raises its emission reduction targets.

ExxonMobil and Chevron shareholders voted on Wednesday to force U.S. giants to fight climate change more aggressively.

In particular, an activist fund will be represented on Exxon's board of directors.

At Total, shareholders will also vote on a less controversial resolution: the change of identity of the company, founded in 1924 under the name of Compagnie française des pétroles, to TotalEnergies.

"The group affirms its desire to transform itself into a multi-energy company," explained CEO Patrick Pouyanné, whose mandate will also be renewed for three years.

Still very much associated with oil, Total wants to show that it is also very present in gas and, more and more, in electricity and renewables, which must represent 20% of investments this year.

© 2021 AFP