TotalEnergies CEO Says Greenwashing Criticism Is Unfair

(Bloomberg) -- TotalEnergies SE is facing “unfair” accusations of greenwashing and “radical positions amplified by social networks,” Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanné said in an interview published Sunday.

The French energy group will invest €5 billion ($5.5 billion) in renewable and low-carbon energies in 2023, making it the oil major “most involved in this strategic challenge,” Le Journal du Dimanche quoted him as saying.

Activists sought to block the company’s May annual shareholder meeting, where 17 institutional investors filed a resolution pressing the group to vote for more ambitious emissions targets.

“Let’s not forget that demand for hydrocarbons continues to grow worldwide,” Pouyanné said when asked about the group’s strategy of having oil and gas still account for 80% of revenue by 2030. TotalEnergies plans also include setting up EV-only service stations in Paris and other French cities, he said.

Pouyanné, 59, said he’s ready to extend his term as CEO next year if the board wants him to stay and shareholders approve next year. He took the post in 2014 after Christophe De Margerie died in a plane crash.

Uganda Project

Pouyanné said TotalEnergies misjudged the controversy around a Ugandan oil project that French banks have declined to finance, which has left the field largely to “Middle Eastern and Chinese banks.”  “I don’t think we realized that this project would become a symbol of the anti-oil fight,” he said.

Ugandan activists and Western environmental groups argue that the project, which involves drilling hundreds of oil wells in and around nature reserves, will destroy ecosystems and increase emissions when the world should be moving away from fossil fuels. 

 “We were slow to react and underestimated its impact,” Pouyanné said.

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