Pre-AGM decryption (& post-AGM reaction to come) ↓
Opposition is growing against TotalEnergie’s flawed climate plan, which will be subject to an advisory vote of its shareholders at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) tomorrow. Assurances du Crédit Mutuel and Crédit Mutuel AM, investment subsidiaries of France’s fifth largest banking group, announced today that they will vote against the plan. They join a group of eight other investors who have already pledged to oppose it. Along with Shell’s, Chevron’s and ExxonMobil’s, TotalEnergies’ AGM will be a decisive test of the credibility and effectiveness of “shareholder engagement”: do investors have the will, the courage and the means to really accelerate the transition of companies in their portfolio?
Will shareholders rubber stamp a flawed climate plan (again) ?
For the second year in a row, TotalEnergies will consult its shareholders on its climate plan at its 2022 AGM. In 2021, 92% of shareholders approved the company’s climate plan, despite this plan being both incomplete and incompatible with the climate emergency. Many investors supported it to praise the consultation process proposed by TotalEnergies. In the meantime significant shareholders such as BlackRock or AXA explicitly stated that they wanted the company to do more in the future and continue to raise its climate ambition – both investors ended up supporting TotalEnergie’s flawed plan (1).
The “climate” plan presented by TotalEnergies this year remains fundamentally flawed. Climate Action 100+, a coalition which brings together more than 700 investors and $68 trillion in assets, finds that the French major does not have 1.5°C-aligned short- and medium-term decarbonization targets, nor does it commit to aligning its investments with this goal (2). Most importantly, TotalEnergies continues to develop new oil and gas projects, despite the International Energy Agency considering such projects to be incompatible with a 1.5°C pathway. With 70% of its capital expenditures linked to fossil fuels and 20% devoted to exploration and new fossil projects, TotalEnergies is the leading hydrocarbon developer in Europe and the seventh largest in the world (3). The Guardian recently revealed that TotalEnergies is involved in more than 20 ‘carbon bombs’ – that is fossil fuel mega-projects which alone exhaust the world’s entire 1.5°C-compatible carbon budget (4). In fact, TotalEnergies will have spent all of its 1.5°C carbon budget as soon as 2035; by 2050, it will have emitted almost 32% greenhouse gas in excess of its budget.
Since the start of the 2022 AGM season, several flawed climate plans have already been approved by complicit shareholders at Repsol, Equinor, and BP. There is a strong risk that TotalEnergies will get the same blank check, with the complicity of investors who are keen to give the appearance of climate action but who are not concerned with the company’s actual – and clearly insufficient – level of ambition on climate.
Investors’ position: a minority of active stewards… and a majority of passive shareholders
Fortunately, some investors are taking a hard line and challenging TotalEnergies’ climate strategy. Assurances du Crédit Mutuel and Crédit Mutuel Asset Management announced today their intention to vote against TotalEnergies’ climate plan. They join a group of eight additional investors who have already committed to do so (5). Last year, other significant shareholders such as Legal & General, Generali, Schroders, and UBS also opposed TotalEnergies’ flawed “Say on Climate” – and should logically vote similarly this year. For the first time, a Climate Action 100+ lead investor for TotalEnergies also flagged the resolution to other members, stating that it will vote against the company’s climate plan.
In addition to voting against unambitious climate plans, investors are also beginning to hold incumbent Directors accountable for TotalEnergies’ failure to stop fossil expansion. La Financière de l’Echiquier and OFI AM have announced that they will vote against the re-election of some or all of the company’s Directors. LFDE will only oppose the re-election of Jean Lemierre, Director of TotalEnergies and Chairman of the Board of BNP Paribas, stating that he “does not have the necessary skills to challenge TotalEnergies’ climate strategy” and could have a “conflict of interest related to BNP Paribas financing new fossil fuel projects“. As for OFI AM, it is opposed to the renewal of all of TotalEnergie’s Directors up for reelection this year (6).
TotalEnergies’ main international (BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street) and French (Amundi, AXA, BNP Paribas) shareholders refused to communicate their vote ahead of the AGM – even though several of them (AXA, Amundi) had done so last year. Civil society, these investors’ own shareholders and even some of their customers have called them to oppose TotalEnergies’ “climate” plan. Their deafening silence is both surprising and worrying since they usually are vocal proponents of shareholder engagement. BlackRock has even announced that it will support fewer shareholder climate resolutions this year.
This week marks the AGM season’s final stretch for oil and gas companies. In addition to TotalEnergies, Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron are also holding their AGMs in the coming days. Advisory votes on their climate plans, shareholder resolutions on climate, calls to oppose the reelection of incumbent Directors: climate issues are increasingly scrutinized by shareholders. For TotalEnergies’ climate-conscious shareholders, there is only one course of action: vote against the company’s flawed climate plan and sanction the incumbent Directors who have validated the company’s fossil fuel expansion strategy.