Total Energies, the French oil giant that left a legacy of destruction on the European continent, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. (Ernest Ankomah/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
TThis year OtalEnergies, the French oil giant that left a legacy of destruction on the European continent, celebrates its 100th anniversary – 100 years of making profits, destroying the environment and damaging people's lives, to put it bluntly.
The company's damage has been widespread, severe and well documented.
In 1956, TotalEnergies entered Africa, exploiting its natural resources along the way. The company's efforts to extract oil and gas have wreaked havoc on communities, land and the environment.
A 2022 study by the Climate Accountability Institute estimated that total emissions attributable to the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline are 379 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, making Total Energies a leading contributor to Africa's carbon emissions.
Charity Migwe, senior campaigner at Oil Change International, a research, communications and advocacy group, noted that the company is involved in a range of projects across the continent.
The project involves laying a 460km pipeline through the freshwater basin of Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake, directly supporting the livelihoods of over 40 million people in the region. In addition, there are plans to extract oil from oil fields in Uganda, and the company plays a key role in the Mozambique LNG project, a major contributor to carbon emissions.
Domestically, protests have been sparked by Total Energies being granted permission to explore for oil and gas off the southwest coast of South Africa, and protests by affected communities, civil society and activists in both countries took place when the company held its annual general meeting in Paris, France.
Warren Blue, community engagement director for environmental justice group Green Connection, said in a press release: “Total Energies and other oil and gas companies need to consider the livelihoods of small-scale fishers who are being financially deprived by offshore oil and gas exploration. We need to come together to protect Africa and its resources from those who are only interested in profit at the expense of ordinary South Africans.”
“We are protesting to protect the environment and prevent marine pollution. Oil and gas drilling in South African waters threatens to degrade the environment and threaten livelihoods and cultural practices,” said Zinhle Mthiyane of the South Durban Regional Environmental Alliance.
One of those affected by Total Energies and its fossil fuel exploration is Sifiso Ntunguzi, a small-scale fisherman from Port St Johns on the Eastern Cape coast who travelled to France to protest.
“We are in Paris to support the lawsuit against Total Energies' oil and gas projects. As a small-scale fisherman and member of a coastal community, I do not support oil and gas exploration in the ocean. We use the ocean for our cultural practices and livelihoods. I am against gas and oil exploration because it threatens to degrade the environment, marine ecosystems, our lives and health. I come from a fishing community and have become a fisherman myself,” he said.
In a separate press release, environmental justice group Bloom wrote that Total Energy continues to pursue oil and gas operations despite being fully aware of their negative climate impacts as early as the 1970s.
Initially, their strategy was to deny climate change, Bloom writes, but now that they can no longer do that, they have shifted tactics and resorted to greenwashing, which the UN describes as: “Greenwashing promotes false solutions to the climate crisis by misleading the public into believing that companies and other entities are doing more to protect the environment than they are actually doing, distracting from and delaying concrete, credible action.”
Total Energies has positioned itself as a serious player in the renewable energy sector, and while it goes all-in on fossil fuel projects, it has consistently put off renewable energy efforts.
For example, the company said of a project in the Northern Cape: “TotalEnergies and its partners are commencing construction of a large-scale hybrid renewable energy project in South Africa, consisting of a 216MW solar power plant and a 500MWh battery storage system to counter intermittent solar generation.”
Bloom explained that the pursuit of renewable energy is profitable, but not as profitable as oil and gas, and does not negate the harmful exploration and use of fossil fuels, which is why he and two other climate justice groups sued TotalEnergies.
The lawsuit also aims to block the expansion of fossil fuel extraction. Parents According to the report, “A criminal lawsuit has been filed against the CEO and directors of French oil company TotalEnergies, alleging that the company's fossil fuel extraction contributed to the deaths of victims of climate-related extreme weather disasters. The lawsuit was filed in Paris by eight people and three NGOs affected by the extreme weather events.”
“The fossil fuel industry will continue to undermine science to expand its operations,” said Joyce Kimutai, a climate scientist at the University of Cape Town.
If they know that the law cannot hold them accountable, they will continue to inflict suffering on people.”
It remains to be seen whether this lawsuit will produce any results, but what's important is that people are standing up and fighting the harmful practices of fossil fuel companies. International organizations like the UN climate change conference have achieved very little. It's up to us, the people on the ground, to unite for the planet.
