TotalEnergies: Mobilization at the European Parliament

10 February 2023

Paris/Brussels – On 7 February, at the European Parliament, five laureates of the Goldman Environmental Prize* denounced the complicity of the financial sector with the cataclysmic carbon trajectory of our society. Out of the 78 key financial players contacted last November, only 4 (Unicredit, Generali, Hanover Re and HDI Global) committed to stop financing TotalEnergies’ new fossil fuel projects in Africa. This is a deplorable result given the existential stakes involved in the French oil major’s expansionist fossil fuel strategy.

In Brussels, MEPs Raphäem Glucksmann and Karima Delli also revealed a political initiative supported by more than 100 elected representatives (MEPs, as well as local and national representatives) calling for the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to propose European legislation aiming to “legally force fossil fuel multinationals and financial players to abandon any new projects in carbon, oil and gas”.

The Goldman Environmental Prize laureates: Claire Nouvian (BLOOM), Liziwe McDaid (The Green Connection), Heffa Schücking (Urgewald) and Lucie Pinson (Reclaim Finance) gave presentations on TotalEnergies various fossil fuel projects in Africa, including those carried out by its Dutch subsidiary TEEPSA (TotalEnergies Exploration & Production South Africa). TotalEnergies plans to invest some $3 billion to launch two huge gas fields south of Cape Town and increase exploration projects on the South African west coast.

*Makoma Lekalakala was not able to travel to Brussels but followed the mobilization remotely.

 

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On 17 October 2022, French NGO BLOOM and South African NGO The Green Connection alerted people to TotalEnergies’ new gas projects in South Africa’s deep waters.

On 24 November, following an announcement by TotalEnergies for a new exploration project off the coast of South Africa, on the Namibian border, the five NGOs: Earthlife Africa, Reclaim Finance, The Green Connecion and Urgewald sent a letter to the main banks, insurers and investors likely to support TotalEnergies in its projects in South Africa and elsewhere.

Two months later, the sobering conclusion is that out of 78 financial institutions contacted (28 banks, 25 insurers and 25 investors), only 4 committed to not support TotalEnergies, directly or indirectly, in its expansionist strategy in Africa.