Press release
Paris, May 25, 2022 – At TotalEnergies’ Annual General Meeting (AGM) this morning, held behind closed doors due to a strong mobilization of climate activists, 88.9% of its shareholders approved the company’s climate plan. This plan is however not compatible with a 1.5°C pathway since it allows the development of new fossil fuel projects and provides an anecdotal decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. This result undermines the credibility of the “Say on Climate” initiative – the consultative votes on companies’ climate plans – and proves the failure of shareholder engagement, lost in endless dialogues that do not lead to concrete changes in company plans. Reclaim Finance calls for new rules on shareholder engagement and urges climate-conscious investors to immediately stop investing in oil and gas expansion.
For the second year in a row, TotalEnergies consulted its shareholders today on its climate strategy. Although many investors (1) have acknowledged the shortcomings of Total’s climate plan and its clear incompatibility with climate imperatives, 88.9% of shareholders approved it. This is nearly a status quo compared to last year, when TotalEnergies’ climate plan was approved by 92%, notwithstanding abstention (2).
The approval of the failed climate plans of European oil majors – Repsol, Equinor, BP and Shell in recent weeks (3) and now TotalEnergies – shows that investors continue to give almost automatic approval to the climate plans presented by the oil and gas majors, although they are not compatible with limiting global warming to 1.5°C.
“This massive approval of TotalEnergies’ so-called “climate” plan definitively buries the credibility of the “Say on Climate” initiative. This concept has unfortunately been misused and now at the service of the greenwashing strategy of companies, with the complicity of a majority of investors” says Lucie Pinson, Director of Reclaim Finance.
A significant minority of committed shareholders nevertheless voted against TotalEnergies’ climate plan. The rejection rate of the resolution was 11.1%, slightly higher than in 2021 (8%). A dozen investors, including CNP Assurances, Assurances du Crédit Mutuel, Crédit Mutuel AM and Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (4), had publicly announced their intention to oppose the company’s plan.
This result seems to confirm that the major shareholders of TotalEnergies, such as BlackRock, Amundi, AXA and BNP Paribas, did not oppose the company’s plan – they had already approved a similar plan last year. In 2021, AXA stated that “TotalEnergies and the rest of the oil and gas industry will need to continue to raise their [climate] ambition” (5). Yet TotalEnergies’ climate plan has not improved significantly since last year: 70% of its capital expenditure remains dedicated to fossil fuels and its hydrocarbon production will increase by 2030. Today’s vote therefore demonstrates that the investors strategy focused on “accompanying the transition” is an empty shell and a red herring. In the coming weeks, Reclaim Finance will examine in detail how each investor voted.
“The failure of TotalEnergies’ Say on Climate is a symptom of the shortcomings of shareholder engagement: endless and toothless dialogue, and no results. Investors must react by mobilising all their shareholder tools: this means voting against the renewal of directors but also divesting when dialogue with the company fails. The French government also has a role to play: we must urgently make it compulsory for companies to adopt climate strategies, with specific criteria and requirements, in order to put an end to greenwashing” concludes Lucie Pinson.