French police fired tear gas at climate protesters trying to block the annual shareholder meeting of oil giant TotalEnergies. The multinational giant has been under fire from NGOs and environmental activists, who have criticized its human rights abuses in African countries. pic.twitter.com/QmCmqojiLu
— red. (@redstreamnet) May 26, 2023
French riot police used tear gas and pepper spray as they clashed with protesters demanding climate action from French oil giant TotalEnergies. pic.twitter.com/3gOepf3LTM
— DW News (@dwnews) May 26, 2023
Today, it’s @TotalEnergies AGM in Paris. Total has become one of the most hated French companies for wanting to build the EACOP, the longest heated oil pipeline worldwide. We are on the streets, blocking Total & telling @PPouyanne that his climate wrecking business has no future. pic.twitter.com/Tnn9s8a56W
— Luisa Neubauer (@Luisamneubauer) May 26, 2023
The rubber may well be hitting the road.
It appears as though the powers that be are saying that they can’t keep playing this stupid global warming game while they are talking about launching a war against most of the world.
Last year, NATO said they were going to fight World War III with wind-powered tanks and jets, and I think that was the point at which powerful people were like “okay, this is out of control, we’ve got to return to reality a little bit here.”
Of course, the issue is, so much money and energy has been poured into the global warming movement that it’s just running on inertia, and will do so indefinitely.
TotalEnergies shareholders rejected an activist resolution on Friday urging faster cuts to the oil major’s greenhouse gas emissions programme after police intervened to stop climate protesters disrupting its annual general meeting.
The resolution, filed by climate group Follow This and 17 institutional investors with a total 1.1 trillion euros under management, obtained 30.44% of votes, up from a 17% vote share result in 2020, the last time a similar resolution was put forward.
Outside the venue in central Paris, the smell of teargas from earlier clashes hung in the air and police used pepper spray as they dragged some protesters away to free a path for shareholders through several hundred climate activists.
All those attending the meeting were required to place phones in sealed satchels for its duration.
“I regret that this meeting does not take place in the conditions that it should,” Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne told the meeting as it began on time. “In any case, I hope dialogue will follow.”
As climate activists have stepped up demands oil companies set tougher targets on greenhouse gas emissions, protesters tried to storm the stage of Shell’s shareholder meeting earlier this week and disrupted BP’s AGM last month.
Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher told France Info radio on Friday that oil and gas companies needed to “re-invent themselves” and would have no future unless they could map a path out of fossil fuels.
The Follow This resolution opposed by TotalEnergies board, called for the company to commit to steeper absolute emissions cuts by 2030 as opposed to intensity targets that can fall as a company adds renewable assets.
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Follow This CEO Mark van Baal said the vote on Friday was “a great outcome and a shareholder rebellion for sure”.
“One-third of investors say Total needs to decrease emissions by 2030 and that they can’t hide behind their customers by saying Scope 3 emissions are not the company’s responsibility,” he said.
Despite the fact that I am well aware this is all part of the plan, it is still satisfying to see these weather cultists get sprayed like the roaches they are.
Even if the power center now finds these cultists they funded annoying and counterproductive, the system can still continue to use it as a distraction.
It’s not like there is a way for any group to pressure the powerful into doing anything that the powerful do not want to do. This is a democracy, so even if 100% of the population supports shutting down all Western industry in the middle of a war and powering NATO jets with wind energy, there is no obligation to do that.
Blocage de l’AG de @TotalEnergies en cours.
[@ClementLanot ] pic.twitter.com/lno2DfTusf
Évidemment dans l’apaisement le plus total.— j’dis ça j’dis rien (@jdicajdisrien) May 26, 2023