Lthe shareholders of the oil giant TotalEnergies approved the report presenting the group’s climate strategy by 88.89%, which aroused reservations from several shareholders and the mobilization of several NGOs on the sidelines of its general meeting. The group’s boss, Patrick Pouyanné, welcomed the result, stressing that the “shareholders support the strategy implemented by a very large majority”, down however compared to 2021, the same resolution having then been validated by 92%.
The resolution – which details the group’s goals by 2030 – had been strongly opposed by several shareholders. The latter considered that it did not go far enough and was not ambitious enough, the latter announced that they would vote against the text, such as Edmond de Rothschild, the Financière de l’echiquier or the Assurances of Crédit mutuel.
When the result of the vote was announced, a few boos rose among the activists outside, who sang: “Total, Total, we must choose, fossil fuels or our future,” observed a journalist from Agence France-Presse. “Today we lost a battle but in a year we can win the war. Minds are evolving,” Pierre Larrouturou, a member of the European Parliament, assured AFP. At the end of the general assembly, Patrick Pouyanné, visibly moved, regretted “the conditions of access to this general assembly which will not have allowed dialogue and exchange”.
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An action by environmental activists on the sidelines of the meeting
By 10 a.m., the meeting had opened with few shareholders. Only a handful were able to access the Pleyel room due to an action by environmental protesters who blocked access. About 200 activists from several NGOs, including Greenpeace, Alternatiba or Friends of the Earth sat and sometimes handcuffed each other in front of the room in order to prevent the GA from being held. “If I had been told, when I took the helm of this group, that we would be launched into this evolution, I would not have believed it. The company is moving in the right direction in my eyes and those of all our employees, as demonstrated by the operation announced this morning,” Patrick Pouyanné assured.
TotalEnergies announced earlier this morning that it had acquired 50% of the American renewable energy producer Clearway Energy Group, the “largest acquisition in renewable energy in the United States, one of the three main renewable markets in the world,” the group said in a statement. At the same time, its CEO explained at the AGM not to expect a sharp decline in oil consumption in the decade, contrary to the scenario of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
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