WHY INVESTORS SHOULD VOTE AGAINST TOTAL’S CLIMATE STRATEGY

The document urges investors to vote against Total's fourteenth and sixth resolutions at its May 2021 AGM, claiming the company's climate strategy is insufficient. It highlights a lack of precise global scope 3 emission targets, planned increases in gas production, and continued investment in new oil projects in East Africa. The authors argue that Total's reliance on carbon capture and storage (CCS) is unrealistic and that its capital expenditure remains heavily skewed toward fossil fuels, creating a risk of stranded assets.

• Total has failed to provide a specific numerical target for the absolute reduction of its global scope 3 emissions by 2030, despite stating a goal to ensure they are lower than 2015 levels.
• Total's strategy involves a geographic imbalance in emissions; while scope 3 emissions are intended to decrease by 30% in Europe, the company plans to increase them by similar proportions in the rest of the world.
• The company's carbon intensity targets are deemed insufficient for the Paris Agreement, as intensity indicators can allow for fossil fuel growth and do not guarantee absolute emissions reductions.
• Total's capital expenditure is heavily weighted toward fossil fuels, with more than 80% of capex assigned to oil and gas, which the authors argue is inconsistent with Paris goals and risks stranded assets.
• Total plans to increase its energy production from 2.7 to 3.6 Mboe/d by 2030, with gas production potentially increasing by 36% to 41% between 2020 and 2030.
• The company continues to pursue new oil frontier projects, specifically the Tilenga and East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) projects in the Great Lakes region of East Africa.
• Total relies on an improbable scale-up of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and nature-based solutions to justify continued fossil fuel production, with its 'Rupture 2050' scenario projecting 7.5Gt of CCS capacity by 2050.

APA

Pinson, L., & de Bonnafos, F. (2021). WHY INVESTORS SHOULD VOTE AGAINST TOTAL’S CLIMATE STRATEGY. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/WhyShareholdersShouldVoteAgainstTotalClimateStrategy_InvestorsBriefing-1.pdf

Chicago

Pinson, Lucie, and Florence de Bonnafos. WHY INVESTORS SHOULD VOTE AGAINST TOTAL’S CLIMATE STRATEGY. Reclaim Finance, 2021. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/WhyShareholdersShouldVoteAgainstTotalClimateStrategy_InvestorsBriefing-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Pinson |first1=Lucie |last2=de Bonnafos |first2=Florence |title=WHY INVESTORS SHOULD VOTE AGAINST TOTAL’S CLIMATE STRATEGY |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=April 2021 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/WhyShareholdersShouldVoteAgainstTotalClimateStrategy_InvestorsBriefing-1.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{pinson2021why, author = {Pinson, Lucie and de Bonnafos, Florence}, title = {{WHY INVESTORS SHOULD VOTE AGAINST TOTAL’S CLIMATE STRATEGY}}, institution = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2021}, month = apr, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/WhyShareholdersShouldVoteAgainstTotalClimateStrategy_InvestorsBriefing-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }