[New York/Frankfurt/Paris, 2nd October 2024] – On Wednesday 2nd October, climate activists are protesting in New York, where TotalEnergies is hosting its main investors. Actions are also taking place this week at the headquarters of TotalEnergies’ investors and banks in Frankfurt and Paris. Activists are calling on investors and banks to make an immediate commitment to stop issuing or buying new bonds from TotalEnergies, as well as to stop all support for companies developing new oil and gas projects.
Bonds represented more than two-thirds of TotalEnergies’ external financing in recent years (1). In 2024, TotalEnergies raised $7.25 billion through bonds, which the company will fully reimburse over decades (2).
Earlier this year some 60 NGOs called on banks and investors to stop lending to TotalEnergies, due to the energy giant’s ‘climate-wrecking strategy’ (3). Following the letter, French banks BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole announced that they would no longer participate in conventional bond issuances for companies in the oil and gas sector (4).
Climate justice movements, organizations and activist – including 350.org Justiça Ambiental, Liveable Arlington, MilieuDefensie, Stop Total France, the Toxic Bonds Network and urgewald – are urging other financial institutions to follow suit and stop support – including participating in the issuance and purchase of new bonds – for TotalEnergies and other companies developing new oil and gas projects.
While TotalEnergies’ investors will be shaking hands at its Investor Day in New York over financial support that will fund the company’s oil expansion 40 years into the future, activists will remind them of what this means for the climate. They will in particular denounce the EACOP project, which TotalEnergies continues to promote despite the heavy repression faced by communities and activists opposing it (5). So far 27 commercial banks have publicly committed not to support the EACOP project (6). The project has so far been financed by equity capital from its shareholders, including TotalEnergies (7). Bonds are likely to be significant to the development of such projects, as they allow the company to raise large amounts of money without conditions regarding their use (8).
Molly Ornati from 350Brooklyn.org : “In Uganda, community members and activists are constantly intimidated, arrested and prosecuted for defending their basic rights. Demonstrations which simply demand fair compensation, an end to displacement, and a halt to environmental destruction are met with police violence and arrests. While international banks across the globe have turned their backs on the EACOP project, they continue allowing the company to go ahead with its oil and gas projects through other financing methods such as bonds. Financiers should immediately stop distributing blank cheques to TotalEnergies.”
Protesters will also denounce the Mozambique LNG project, which has been suspended for 3 years and was recently under criticism due to reports of alleged atrocities committed by Mozambican armed forces near the project’s premises (9) and TotalEnergies’ shale gas projects in Texas (10).
Ranjana Bhandari, director of Liveable Arlington in Arlington, Texas and home to 400,000 residents exposed to Total’s ongoing urban fracking operations stated: “The ongoing fracking operations of the French energy giant TotalEnergies’ are placing thousands of families and children at risk in the city of Arlington, around Texas, and other locations across the nation and worldwide. It’s time consumers and investors demand American banks such as Citi, JP Morgan, and Bank of America stop funding these long-term bonds that are harming the very residents in the cities where these banks are operating.”
Anabela Lemos, from Justiça Ambiental, Mozambique: “The TotalEnergies gas project in Cabo Delgado is associated with land grabbing, lost livelihoods and human rights violations, alongside a violent conflict. TotalEnergies is now planning to co-develop the controversial Mphanda Nkuwa mega dam in the Zambezi river. Even before construction has started, local communities are reporting intimidations and human rights violations to force them to accept the project. If the dam goes ahead, this biodiversity hotspot might suffer irreversible damage and thousands of families will lose their lands, livelihoods and futures. Financiers are ethically bound to refuse support for TotalEnergies trail of destruction across the world.”
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Press contacts :
Anabela Lemos, Justiça Ambiental, anabela.ja.mz@gmail.com
Ranjana Bandhari, Liveable Arlington, liveablearlington@gmail.com
Melanie Smith, 350.org US melanie.smith@350.org
About the actions:
New York City : the action is taking place at 8:00AM at the headquarters of Citibank. Press is welcome]. Citi is the most important underwriter of TotalEnergies’s ongoing bonds (11), top bank in the US between 2021 and 2023 (12) and participated in underwriting TotalEnergies’ $3 billion bonds issue on September 10th 2024.
Frankfurt: onThursday 26 October, a protest took place in front of Deutsche Bank’s Headquarters in Frankfurt. Pictures are available here Deutsche Bank is the third most important underwriter of TotalEnergies’s ongoing bonds (11), top bank in Germany between 2021 and 2023 (12) and participated in underwriting TotalEnergies’ $4.25 billion bonds issue on April 5th 2024. DWS, Deutsche Bank’s asset management subsidiary, is the first investor of TotalEnergies in Germany (12).
Pictures are available upon request to the press contacts.
Notes :
(1) Between 2016 and 2023, 69.8% of TotalEnergies’ financing came from bonds, according to data from Banking On Climate Chaos, 2024
(2) The average maturity (date on which the bond matures and must be repaid by the issuing company) of bonds issued by TotalEnergies between 2020 and 2024 was 22 years compared to 6 years for those issued between 2000 and 2004, according to a recent study by AFII, 2024.
(3) The Brussels Times, Nearly 60 NGOs call on banks and investors to stop lending to TotalEnergies, 2024
(4) Reclaim Finance, BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole Say No to Bonds for the Oil and Gas Sector, 2024
(5) #STOPEACOP, Uganda Silences EACOP Critics: Activists and Affected Communities Detained, 2024
(6) #STOPEACOP Who’s Behind EACOP?, 2024
(7) The project’s shareholders are TotalEnergies, China National Offshore Corporation, Uganda National Oil Company and Tanzanian Petroleum Development Corporation.
(8) Reclaim Finance, TotalEnergies and financial markets: Financial institutions engaged for decades of pollution, 2024
(9) Politico, All must be beheaded”: Allegations of atrocities at French energy giant’s African stronghold, 2024
and Say No to Gas ! in Mozambique, Call for investigation into reports of atrocities committed near TotalEnergies’ Mozambique LNG premises, 2024
(10) Liveable Arlington
(11) For a more global view on TotalEnergies’ most significant underwriters and facilitators since 2016, refer to the Banking on Climate Chaos report
(12) Defund TotalEnergies, Who is financing TotalEnergies?