#TotalKnew
Oil giant Total has known that burning fossil fuels was causing climate change since the 1970s. They lied about it. They funded climate doubt and denial, and made profit while stealing our time and our future.
Source:
Petition TO the BANKS FUNDING TOTAL & THEIR DIRTY PROJECTS:
The oil giant knew their core business was causing global warming almost 50 years ago. They covered up the truth, funded misinformation, lied to their shareholders and the public. They made profit from pollution.
Total’s fossil fuel business depends on money they get from banks. We demand that commercial banks who finance Total and its projects stop immediately. From across the world we call on banks: cut Total off.
#TotalKnew: the oil giant knew they were causing global warming almost 50 years ago. They covered up the truth, funded misinformation, lied to their shareholders and the public. They made profit off of pollution.
Total’s fossil fuel business depends on money they get from private banks. We demand that banks who finance Total and its projects stop immediately.
With one hand, these banks hold our hard-earned money, and our retirement savings. With another, they finance Total’s toxic business which fuels the climate crisis and robs us of a safe and secure future.
Commercial banks like Crédit Agricole, HSBC or Chase depend on their clients: that’s us, regular people all over the world. If enough of us speak up and demand that private banks break their ties with Total now, we could become a real threat to their reputation and business - and we could make their association with Total and other coal, oil and gas companies too toxic to be worth the risk. This is how, step by step, we dismantle the power of the fossil fuel industry.
Why are we going after banks?
Total’s fossil fuel business depends on money they get from commercial banks: they need investments and project funding to keep their dirty oil and gas business going. You can see the full list of Total’s active project and their public and private financiers on this BankTrack website.
Commercial banks like Crédit Agricole, HSBC or Chase depend on their clients: that’s us, regular people all over the world. With one hand, these banks hold our hard-earned money, and our retirement savings. With another, they finance Total’s toxic business, which fuels the climate crisis and robs us of a safe and secure future. We demand that banks that finance Total and its projects take immediate steps to cut Total off, and get out of the business of climate crisis.
If enough of us speak up and demand that some of the worlds biggest banks break their ties with Total now, we could become a real threat to their reputation and business. We could make their association with Total and other coal, oil and gas corporations too toxic to be worth the risk. This is how, step by step, we dismantle the power of the fossil fuel industry.
Why aren’t we targeting Total directly?
We’re not going after Total directly because we don’t want their empty promises. We want them to feel real painful consequences: those that affect their bottom line. By removing or restricting Total’s access to cheap finance, we make it more expensive for them to get the money they need to keep their fossil fuel business running.
By making an association with Total toxic for commercial banks, through customer pressure, we want them to realise that cutting off Total (and other fossil fuel companies in the long run) isn’t just the right thing to do for the climate, but also for their reputation and profits.
In France, the climate justice movement is rallying around #TotalKnew to demand that the French state starts an official investigation into the accusations that the company knowingly misinformed the public and their shareholders, and acted to spread lies and doubt about climate science.
Total likes to show a green face, but in reality 90% of their current business is still in fossil fuels. They won’t change fast enough unless they have no choice. Humanity can’t afford to rely on voluntary commitments of fossil fuel industries to transition to clean renewable energy: there must be laws and obligations put in place by legislators and financial institutions to meet the global promise of the Paris Agreement.
Source
Download the PDF with the full report.
More information
Learn more about #TotalKnew, the financiers behind Total’s projects, and some of their dirtiest current investments, including fracking for gas in Vaca Muerta in Argentina, and the disastrous East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline.
TotalMent.fr (TotalLies, in French)
Reclaim Finance & Greenpeace France: Pipeline of Pollution: Total responsible, finance complicit?
Glasgow Agreement: 15-22 November 2021 actions to Collapse Total
#StopEACOP: campaign to stop Total from building the East African Crude Oil Pipeline
Friends of the Earth France: A nightmare called TOTAL: An Alarming Rise in Human Rights Violations in Uganda and Tanzania
Banking on Climate Chaos, Fossil Fuel Finance report 2021
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