As TotalEnergies continues to develop new oil and gas projects, particularly in Africa, investors have criticized its destructive oil and gas projects and climate-wrecking strategy.(1) Far from buying the claims of TotalEnergies’ CEO Patrick Pouyanné that the company is an energy transition leader, some investors feel that the company is refusing to change despite their warnings. Reclaim Finance has taken stock of their strategies to influence TotalEnergies and other oil and gas companies and has identified more than 50 investors who have committed to no longer providing new money to the company.
| Country | Exclusion from the investment portfolio of all or a majority of oil and gas companies, including TotalEnergies | No new investments (shares and bonds) in oil and gas companies, including TotalEnergies | No bonds investments in oil and gas companies, including TotalEnergies |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Australian Ethical, HCF, Pengana International Equities | – | – |
 |
Caisse de Dépôts et de Placements du Québec | – | – |
|
AkademikerPension, AP Pension, Laegernes Pensionskasse, Lærernes Pension, P+ Pension Fund for Academics, PenSam, PKA | – | – |
|
Lemonade Insurance, New York City Retirement Systems (NYCERS, TRS, BERS) | – | – |
|
Ircantec | AEMA – MACIF, Assurances du Crédit Mutuel, BPCE Assurances, CNP Assurances, Crédit Mutuel Arkéa – Suravenir, Groupama, MAIF, Matmut, SCOR, Société Générale Assurances | BNP Paribas Cardif, MACSF |
|
Ireland Strategic Investment Fund | – | – |
 |
Storebrand Fonder | – | – |
|
ABP, Menzis, Pensioenfonds Slagers, PFZW, PH&C, PME, PMT (2), Rail & OV, SPH, VGZ | – | – |
|
Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan Pension Fund, Lambeth Pension Fund, Southwark Pension Fund, Waltham Forest Pension Fund, Wiltshire Pension Fund | – | – |
|
PKBS, Stiftung Abendrot | – | – |
| Country | Exclusion from the investment portfolio of all or a majority of oil and gas companies, including TotalEnergies | No new investments (shares and bonds) in oil and gas companies, including TotalEnergies | No bonds investments in oil and gas companies, including TotalEnergies |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Cardano, MN | – | – |
 |
Generation Investment Management, Sarasin & Partners | – | – |
|
SEB Investment Management | – | – |
 |
– | Mandarine Gestion, Mirova, Tikehau Capital | AEMA – OFI Invest AM, BNP Paribas AM (3) |
|
– | Nordea Asset Management (en quarantaine) | – |
Inaction in oil and gas sector drives investor exclusions
Since the Paris Agreement, investors, driven by climate justice movements, have chosen to exclude fossil fuel companies from their investments.
In Ireland, following the adoption of the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act in 2018, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (the country’s sovereign wealth fund) sold its fossil fuel assets in 2019.(4) In the years that followed, other asset owners, such as Ircantec in France,(5) ABP – the largest Dutch pension fund – and AkademikerPension – a Danish pension fund – also announced that they were excluding all companies that develop oil and gas projects. A spokesperson for AkademikerPension said that oil and gas company managers ” simply refuse (…) to change their climate course (…) in manner consistent with the goals of the Paris agreement“.(6)
Other investors take a case-by-case approach, excluding specific companies, including TotalEnergies, because of their climate or human rights impacts. When the Danish pension fund AP Pension announced it would exclude most oil and gas companies from its portfolio, it specifically named Shell and TotalEnergies as “companies that make it difficult to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement “.(7) The Dutch asset manager MN, excluded TotalEnergies from its portfolio after coordinating the Climate Action 100+ investor dialogue with the company, a decision it said was justified “after years of intensive, yet unsuccessful, climate engagement“.(8)
The Dutch asset manager Cardano (formerly Actiam) and the Danish pension fund PKA chose to sell their investments in TotalEnergies because of the EACOP project in Uganda.(9) PKA, after holding TotalEnergies “under surveillance” for 2 years, explained: “we had been in dialogue for a number of years, without them being responsive to the criticism we had made“.(10) The Scandinavian asset manager, Nordea Asset Management, “quarantined” TotalEnergies with no new bonds or shares being bought, due to the numerous accusations of human rights violations surrounding the project.(11)
Investors that stop supporting while keeping the power to sanction
These decisions and blunt criticism speak volumes about the unwillingness of TotalEnergies and the oil and gas sector to take the climate crisis and shareholders’ demands seriously. Yet, investors who sell their shares in fossil fuels lose their power to influence the strategies and projects of those companies. They can no longer vote at their annual general meetings, and so cannot obstruct these companies’ fossil fuel expansion.
In France, insurers such as CNP Assurances, MACIF and MAIF, and asset managers including Mandarine Gestion and Tikehau Capital have adopted policies that exclude any new investment in companies that, like TotalEnergies, develop new oil and gas fields, while keeping them in their investments portfolios. This allows them to keep their shareholder power and to sanction the strategies of these companies’ managers at their annual general meetings.
When TotalEnergy refused to allow its shareholders to vote on its climate plan in 2025, investors still had the option of expressing their disagreement with its board by voting against their re-election, against directors’ remuneration or against the approval of financial statements. Voting against these strategic resolutions sends a strong signal to TotalEnergies’ management that refusing to align with the International Energy Agency’s “Net Zero Emissions by 2050” scenario leads to systematic sanctions from shareholders.
The French asset manager Ofi Invest Asset Management, whose escalation procedure provides for sanction votes for companies that “are not moving in the right direction“,(12) voted against the re-election of TotalEnergies’ CEO in 2024 and against his remuneration in 2024 and 2025. Union Investment, TotalEnergies’ second-largest German shareholder, has pledged to vote against resolutions proposed by the management of companies that increase their oil and gas production.(13) At TotalEnergies’ 2025 annual general meeting, Union Investment voted against the re-election of a director, and publicly expressed its concern about the EACOP and Mozambique LNG projects, calling for an independent international audit of Mozambique LNG. It also excluded TotalEnergies from its “sustainable” funds.(14)
Among the strategies available to investors who want to take climate action, only the adoption of ambitious and comprehensive policies will signal clear opposition to fossil fuel expansion. These policies must combine an end to new investments in fossil fuel companies, include the use of votes to sanction weak climate strategy and public denunciation of companies’ responsibility for the climate crisis. In particular, Reclaim Finance calls on all the investors in TotalEnergies, including its main investor Amundi, to stop supporting its climate-wrecking strategy and to obstruct its plans for new oil and gas projects.
