Climate activist group Follow This has been joined by a group of investors with $1.1 trillion in assets under management to ask TotalEnergies shareholders to push for more ambitious targets on emissions cuts.
The resolution filed for when the company will hold its annual general meeting on May 26 follows others that Follow This has filed for coming shareholder meetings at rival energy majors BP Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Shell.
“To achieve the goal of (the) Paris (climate deal), the world has to almost halve emissions by 2030, but TotalEnergies has no plan to drive down emissions this decade,” Follow This founder Mark van Baal said.
“These climate resolutions at Big Oil will show which investors are serious about resolving the climate crisis and which prefer to just talk about it.”
The investor group co-filing the latest resolution represents 1.5% of TotalEnergies’ shares.
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Meanwhile, the oil giant said on Thursday that opinion on the various shareholder resolutions will be given by its board for the AGM on April 26, and will submit its Sustainability and Climate report to a shareholder vote at the meeting.
Follow This wants the companies to commit to absolute emissions cuts by 2030, rather than intensity-based targets, including Scope 3 emissions from the combustion of the fuels they sell. However, TotalEnergies has said its emissions will not register a big reduction by 2030 in absolute terms.
Measuring emissions by intensity means a company can technically increase its fossil fuel output and overall emissions while using offsets or adding renewable energy or biofuels to its product mix.
Scientists say the world needs to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 43% from 2019 levels by 2030 to have any hope of meeting the Paris Agreement goal of keeping warming below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
In 2020, the last time TotalEnergies shareholders voted on a Follow This resolution, the activist received 17% of the votes.
TotalEnergies’ climate strategy was approved by about 90% of shareholder votes in 2021 and 2022.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
