TotalEnergies’ climate bombs
With plans for oil wells and pipelines in Uganda and Tanzania, gas fields and liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals in Mozambique, Papua New Guinea or the United States, TotalEnergies is multiplying climate bombs projects , far more than its competitors such as Shell (41 countries), Eni (40 countries) or ExxonMobil (39 countries).
Its oil and gas expansion strategy is the opposite of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Net Zero Emissions (NZE) scenario ), which aims to keep global warming under 1.5°C. In this scenario, no new oil and gas fields are needed, other than those approved before the end of 2021.
If TotalEnergies’ climate bombs extracted all its resources in production or of expansion, the company could extract more than 36.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe). This would release 14.1 billion tons of CO2e into the atmosphere – almost 36 times France’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 – including 8 billion tons due to its new projects.
TotalEnergies has made liquefied natural gas (LNG) a central pillar of its strategy, allowing it to target international markets. The company is the 11th largest developer of liquefaction terminals in the world according to the Global Oil and Gas Exit List. Yet according to the IEA’s NZE scenario, these projects are not needed to meet global gas demand. They will therefore simply reinforce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, and benefit TotalEnergies and its shareholders.
A distinction can be made between TotalEnergies’ projects in production, its short-term expansion projects – which could start producing in the next few years – and its long-term expansion projects – which are still at an early stage of development.
TotalEnergies plays an essential role in all of these projects. The company can act as operator – responsible for the development, operation and production of the project – or as partner – which participates in the development of a project and receives the benefits.
Among its long-term projects, TotalEnergies has acquired 77 exploration licenses since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015. This clearly shows that the company continues to rely on the exploitation of oil and gas well beyond the limits to keep global warming at 1.5°C.
Sources: Enerdata, Global Oil and Gas Exit List, Rystad Energy. CO2e emissions were calculated using the KING metrics.
TotalEnergies is active in the country
TotalEnergies develops new projects in the country
TotalEnergies is active and develops new projects in the country
Contested projects
Each of TotalEnergies’ new projects creates a number of problems: greenhouse gas emissions, damaging impacts for the environment and biodiversity, human rights violations, negative impacts for local populations and false promises of economic development. Across the planet, women and men are mobilizing against the company’s climate bombs.
