France – In an article published today in the international journal Global Environmental Change, three historians reveal that the managers and employees of TotalEnergies (at the time Total and Elf) were warned of the possibility of unprecedented climate change due to the production of fossil fuels as early as 1971. The document reveals how the multinational oil major has deceived the public, policy-makers and investors over the past 50 years by:
To highlight these revelations, the organisations Notre Affaire à Tous and 350.org are launching a campaign calling on public authorities to hold them accountable, and major banks to cut their ties with Total.
For 350.org and Notre Affaire à Tous:
“These revelations provide proof that TotalEnergies and the other oil and gas majors have stolen the precious time of a generation to stem the climate crisis. The dire consequences of climate change we are now experiencing could have been avoided if Total executives fifty years ago had decided that the future of the planet is more important than their profits.”
The strategies used by Total over the past 50 years show that the multinational’s priority has always been to protect its profits at all costs, regardless of the impact on humanity and the climate. Even today, TotalEnergies intends to increase its production capacities and develop new devastating projects in protected regions, such as the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) and the Arctic LNG2 projects. According to their current plans, fossil fuels will still represent more than 80% of the group’s investments in 2030.
Clémence Dubois, 350.org France Team Lead, said: “The intensive development of new oil and gas projects is a declaration of war against humanity. Total’s plans to continue developing massive new oil and gas fields in the years to come could end up costing millions of lives. This is only possible though because of the support they receive from the financial sector. From all over the world, we are appealing to the banks: it is time to cut funding to Total.”
As the COP26 negotiations start in a few weeks, these revelations underline the urgent need for governments to rein in the fossil fuel industry and their financial backers, rather than waiting for them to transition voluntarily.
Justine Ripoll, campaign manager for Notre Affaire à Tous, said: “Legal frameworks and lawsuits are proving to be more and more effective in forcing multinationals to respect their climate commitments, as demonstrated by the case of Shell in the Netherlands. But we must be vigilant: these legal initiatives are under constant attack from the lobbies of big business, as we are currently seeing with the EU corporate due diligence and accountability initiative or the UN binding treaty on transnational corporations.”
These lobbying practices with public authorities, to make the interests of multinationals take precedence over the future of populations and the planet, documented in the newly published research, are still very current. Notre Affaire à Tous and 350.org are calling on the French government to launch a commission of inquiry, to shed light on the way in which climate policy decisions have been taken during all these decades, especially when we know that Total and Elf have been and continue to be closely linked to the French state, as a recent report by Friends of the Earth has shown.
350.org and Notre Affaire à Tous demand that governments and financial actors force TotalEnergies to align itself with the Paris climate agreement by ceasing to develop new fossil fuel projects.
By deciding not to regulate TotalEnergies’ activities, and by continuing to provide them with financial support, the government and financial institutions are shifting the burden of the climate transition onto citizens and local authorities, who are now paying a high price for the unbridled exploitation of fossil fuels. TotalEnergies must be held accountable for the losses and damage caused by its decision to ignore scientific warnings over the past 50 years.
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NOTE TO EDITORS:
In order to shed light on TotalEnergies’ actions since 1971, to allow citizens to take action, and to put pressure on the public and financial actors in a position to impose the climate transition on TotalEnergies, Notre Affaire à Tous and 350.org are launching today a campaign calling on public authorities to hold Total accountable, and on major banks to cut their ties with the company. For more information, access the website totalknew.com.
CONTACTS:
Notre Affaire à Tous: Justine Ripoll, Campaigns Manager
[email protected] / 00 33 6 42 21 37 36
350.org: Clémence Dubois, France Team Lead
[email protected] / 00 33 6 42 71 31 75
50 years ago, the directors of one of the world’s biggest oil companies, Total, learned about climate change. It was 1971. I wasn’t even born yet. My father was eleven years old.
Since then, climate science has matured, even as the planet heated up. But one fact remains. For half a century now, the rich men of this world have known that their growing wealth would come at a price.
And they left us to pay that bill: with the suffering of millions of people struggling against wildfires, heatwaves, floods and hurricanes. With the destruction of wild nature. With an ever increasing stress and urgency felt by an entire generation of children born in the era of the climate crisis.
Total’s executives chose this future for us. They knew – and they didn’t care. They lied, they denied, they dug and burned, they got richer and richer and more powerful. They stole fifty years of action to stop climate breakdown. They did it with eyes wide open – and with impunity.
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In 1988, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere passed 350 parts per million – a safe limit, for which 350.org was named. That year, Total, Exxon and other oil majors joined forces and launched their first climate denial strategy. It was a success. The doubt they first sowed lives on.
I was born in 1988. I’m 33 now. It’s odd to think that I was born into a world that still had a chance. The groundbreaking scientific work of the 1980s gave us that chance: understanding climate change meant being able to stop and reverse it.
The men at Total’s board table stole that chance from me – from all of us alive today. I imagine they did it lightly, like it didn’t matter. They knew – and they put everything they had to stop others from knowing. Every single year since then they’ve gotten richer and more powerful, while the world I was born into 33 years ago is plummeting to the brink of irreversible climate breakdown.
*
My niece was born 20 years later, in 2008. My nephew was born in 2018. The 10 years between them doesn’t seem like that much, when you see the two of them together.
But what happens in the 10 years that follow could be what makes or breaks their future. What the people in charge of our laws and our money choose to do about Total and other oil giants could mean the difference between pulling back from the cliff’s edge, and jumping headlong into the unknown future.
*
When you work everyday with the climate crisis looming over your head, present in every email, the topic of every meeting, it’s easy to become desensitised. Hope is an elusive thing; but so is anger, its edge blunted by everyday use.
But I read about Total’s lies and I get so angry it’s difficult to breathe. I imagine these men in suits the moment they first learn, without a doubt, that their business is literally putting life on Earth at risk. I imagine their laughter and their indifference when they take a vote that will carry consequences for an entire generation, a vote in which they choose money and influence and their own comfort over the health of the planet and the well-being of their fellow humans.
*
The world isn’t going to end, because we are not going to let it. But something is ending right now: the era of the power of the fossil fuel industry. The era of Total and Exxon, of BP and Shell. There’s a wave gathering momentum that’s about to break and carry away the lies and destruction and greed of oil executives.
This isn’t the time to just sit back and hope that things will get better. This is a time to face our rage: to embrace it and shape it into action. It’s a time to make them pay: for their lies, their greed, their indifference. It’s time to demand justice and draw a red line and make sure everyone, everywhere knows: Total knew. Exxon, Shell, BP, and others: they all knew.
Get angry and do something. Start here: TotalKnew.com
]]>BBC, TotalEnergies accused of downplaying climate risks
Financial Times, Total accused of campaign to play down climate risk from fossil fuels
AFP, Oil & gas giant Total downplayed climate threat: study
RFI, French oil giant Total covered up climate risks 50 years ago: report
Euronews, Fossil fuel giant Total has known about climate threat since 1971, say scientists
DeSmog, French Oil Company Total ‘Knew About Global Warming Impact in 1971’, Study Finds
Commondreams, ‘Bombshell’: Total Knew About Climate Threat From Fossil Fuels for Decades, But Denied It
Le Monde, Changement climatique : comment Total et Elf ont contribué à semer le doute depuis des décennies
Nouvel Obs Il y a 50 ans, ce que Total savait de l’impact de ses activités sur le réchauffement climatique
Mediapart, Dérèglement climatique : Total savait dès 1971 – Page 1 | Mediapart
Le Figaro, Total a sciemment minimisé son rôle dans la menace du changement climatique, selon des scientifiques
Libération, Changement climatique : Total a su pendant quarante ans et a minimisé le danger
Spiegel, Der Ölkonzern Total wusste seit 1971 von der Klimakrise
FAZ, Man wusste Bescheid
El Diario AR, Hace medio siglo, la petrolera Total ya sabía que sus productos estaban alterando el medio ambiente
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