TotalEnergies, the French oil and gas giant, is organizing its annual general meeting on Friday, May 26. On the agenda, there is a resolution tabled by shareholders who demand more climate efforts from the company.
TotalEnergies, the leading company in France, is holding its annual general meeting with its shareholders on the morning of Friday, May 26. The French oil and gas giant is in solid financial health since in 2022, it earned a net profit of 4.9 billion euros. However, the atmosphere is likely to be tense. This meeting takes place under high security with filtering, sealed laptops, computers and returnable bags. Once again, the question of the climate comes to play the spoilsports. Environmental NGOs are calling for the event to be blocked.
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The atmosphere is also likely to be tense inside the room because some are calling for more efforts for the climate. As in 2022, a wind of rebellion is blowing on certain shareholders, which has the gift of putting the CEO of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné, in a bad mood. He spoke in May 2022 at the BFM Business microphone: “I do not mind that we give a lot of noise to a few French institutional investors who are not happy but they keep their shares, even increase them. There is a Tartuffe side to this affair, which makes me angry”.
It’s not going to get better because this year, the resolution of a group of activist shareholders is on the agenda of the general meeting. It asks TotalEnergies to reduce its CO2 emissions. This means giving up new oil and gas drilling projects to develop low-carbon energies.
The group’s climate policy approved by more than 89%
For Valentin Vigier, an analyst at Financière de l’Echiquier, one of the investors who filed the resolution, because of global warming, fossil fuels will end up weighing down the group’s accounts. “It’s a question of risk management. The diversification of energy sources also means less dependence on fossil fuels, which are closely linked to problems of geopolitics and energy sovereignty. In a warming world, we potentially have regulations that will be strengthened, consumption habits that will change, and therefore a demand for fossil fuels that will perhaps fall faster than current estimates”he believes.
These rebel shareholders represent less than 1.4% of the capital according to TotalEnergies. In 2022, the group’s climate policy was approved by more than 89%. The majority of shareholders have made their accounts, according to Patrick Raison, president of the National Association of Shareholders of France. “The margin released on carbon energies is much higher than that released today on renewable energies. The majority of Total’s shareholders are Anglo-Saxons or American pension funds who are looking for profitability in terms of their investment, an increase in the share price and the dividend. he describes.
“If Total’s profitability deteriorates in the short term, we can think that there will be arbitrages on groups which have better profitability”
Patrick Raison, President of the National Association of Shareholders of Franceat franceinfo
The Minority Shareholders’ Resolution is advisory so even if it passes, management will not be required to enforce it. TotalEnergies has in any case asked its shareholders not to vote for it. Even if this shareholder resolution has no chance of succeeding, like those filed with Shell, BP, Engie and in other sectors, Lucie Pinson, founder of the NGO Reclaim Finance, still sees an advantage in it. . According to her, “they make it possible to put pressure on these companies and push them to publish more information. More information means less greenwashing since it makes it possible to show by A + B that these companies are not in transition”.
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Above all, it calls for integrating climate performance into each vote. Yamina Saheb, doctor in energy and co-author of the IPCC report, believes that the climate emergency requires even stronger measures. “The only way to act is to regain power, for politics to regain power. This means that we must nationalize these societies, except that it is now that we must regain this power. This is the last period when the public authorities can do something”explains this doctor of energy.
Shareholders are still today largely excluded from environmental choices. In France, in 2022, only 10 companies, including TotalEnergies, organized votes on their climate strategies and all were only consultative.