TotalEnergies is facing growing scrutiny from investors who criticize its climate-wrecking strategy — including dropping its 2050 net-zero goal — with some going as far as to rule out investing in the company. The latest to do so is Caisse des Dépôts, TotalEnergies’ tenth-largest investor, which has just committed to no longer buy bonds issued by oil-producers.[1] Nearly 70 international investors now exclude financing for TotalEnergies and other companies developing new oil and gas fields. Reclaim Finance reviews the reasons that led them to write off TotalEnergies and its peers, and calls on all investors to stop financing fossil fuel companies.
In recent years, TotalEnergies has continued to increase its oil and gas production, as well as the share of its investments dedicated to new oil and gas projects. In 2023, the company announced a target of allocating 30% of its investments to these projects by 2030. It has since then raised this goal in stages to 35% [2] and even plans to dedicate 40% of its 2026 investments to new fossil fuel projects.[3]
In parallel, the company scaled back its 2030 investment targets for “integrated power and low-carbon molecules ” – which includes renewable electricity but also fossil gas-fired power plants – from 33% in 2023 to 26% in 2026.[4] Between 2025 and 2026, the company also reduced its 2030 gross renewable capacity target from 100 GW [5] to “more than 75 GW”.[6]
It is therefore hardly surprising that TotalEnergies was found liable for greenwashing by the Paris Judicial Court in October 2025 after claiming it was a “major player in the energy transition.”[7] This followed similar decisions by advertising regulatory bodies against the company in Germany,[8] South Africa [9] and the United Kingdom.[10] In March 2026 the company acknowledged that it was not ” in a position to formulate a net zero target within the meaning of European regulations “.[11]
A strategy rejected by several European investors
Many shareholders in TotalEnergies had bet that engagement with the company would improve its climate strategy. But the successive weakenings of the oil major’s climate targets have led numerous European investors to acknowledge that dialogue is not working. They have therefore decided to increase pressure on TotalEnergies by ruling out any new investment in the company.
In 2022, pension fund Ircantec was one of the first French investors to announce that it was divesting from TotalEnergies and 11 other fossil fuel companies “due to the climate emergency (…) and in line with the recent projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA)“.[23] This exclusion was subsequently extended in 2024 to “all companies initiating new oil and gas exploration, production or transport projects“.[24]
Dutch asset manager MN, which had coordinated the dialogue between TotalEnergies and the Climate Action 100+ initiative (comprising over 600 international investors), justified its 2024 decision to exclude the company from its portfolio by “years of intensive, yet unsuccessful, climate engagement“.[25]
More recently, Nordea Asset Management, which had “quarantined” TotalEnergies due to allegations of human rights violations surrounding the EACOP project in Uganda,[26] announced in February 2026 that it would stop buying bonds from oil and gas companies such as TotalEnergies.[27] In June 2026, the Swiss foundation Ethos announced that it would stop investing in companies developing new oil and gas fields and singled out TotalEnergies among companies that were “neither open to dialogue nor inclined to change” and that had “attempted to obstruct the efforts of their own shareholders seeking to encourage them towards change“.[28]
An exclusion to be generalized to all fossil fuel companies
Without directly naming TotalEnergies, several French investors, such as asset management giant BNP Paribas AM [29] and, more recently, French state-owned group Caisse des Dépôts (TotalEnergies’ tenth-largest investor),[30] have also decided in recent years to stop buying bonds issued by any company involved in oil and gas exploration and production. This is particularly significant since bonds represent a critical source of financing for fossil fuel companies, which has doubled over the last decade.[31]
Other investors, particularly in the insurance sector,[32] also exclude the purchase of shares in companies that are developing oil and gas projects. Some [33] such as Maif or Suravenir (Crédit Mutuel Arkéa) extend this exclusion to the rest of the value chain, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and new gas-fired power plants. By excluding any new investment in these companies, while keeping the shares they already own, they retain their shareholder power and can thus sanction the climate-wrecking strategies of these companies. Indeed, they must actively obstruct the general meetings of companies such as TotalEnergies, by voting against the re-election of board members and the remuneration of their executives or against the approval of financial accounts.[34]
Against a backdrop of multiplying extreme weather events and the energy price crisis, investors who claim to be responsible must immediately commit to ending all new investments — primarily bonds — in fossil fuel companies. Reclaim Finance also calls on all TotalEnergies’ investors to vote against the re-election of their board members, the remuneration of their executives, and the approval of their financial accounts at the company’s next annual meeting.
