Total greenwash
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
One of the world’s largest oil and gas companies is trying to use 'green' financing to fund its disastrous plans to drill the Arctic. We can’t let them get away with it.
Add your name to this urgent message to investors: don’t buy Total’s toxic 'sustainability' bonds.
A,
This week French oil and gas giant Total is getting set to sell a cunning plan to investors: to use 'sustainable' financing to fund its efforts to drill the Arctic.
It’s greenwashing on an epic scale. But we have a chance to disrupt Total’s plans.
Total is unveiling its full corporate strategy to investors like AXA and BNP Paribas starting today. Investors will then decide whether to buy into Total's 'sustainability bonds' over the coming weeks.
It’s just enough time to raise the alarm. You can spook investors by showing them that tens of thousands of people across the... world oppose this attempt to use ‘green’ finance to fund fossil expansion.
Tell BNP Paribas, AXA and BlackRock don’t buy Total’s toxic sustainability bonds!
Investors increasingly are demanding action on climate. But by 2030, 80% of Total's investments will still be be directed to fossil fuels.
Which is why Total came up with this cunning plan: call the investments ‘sustainable’ - but use them to fund oil and gas expansion.
It's greenwash. But it also sets a dangerous precedent: if Total can use sustainable finance to build massive oil pipelines through East Africa and drill the Arctic wilderness, then so too can any other company.
Total says that its ‘sustainability linked bonds’ will support its climate plans. But one look at those plans shows how hollow this claim is. What’s more, Total is not obligated to spend any of the money it raises through its sustainability bonds for green projects: it can pump it straight into new oil and gas projects.
Sign now: investors use green finance to create climate solutions not fund climate destruction.
Across the world SumOfUs members have taken on some of the largest fossil fuel companies and won! People power has helped push insurers like AIG and Liberty Mutual to abandon the Adani Carmichael mine and force Canadian banks to finally set climate goals. The finance world is moving on climate - but only when we push it.
Which is why if we move fast we can expose Total’s greenwashing for what it is.
Thanks for all that you do,
Nick and the team at SumOfUs
More information:
Protect the climate but finance Total?, Reclaim Finance, 24 February 2021
Sustainability-linked bonds in 'rapid growth' as more firms tap ESG debt market, S&P Global Market Intelligence, 23 June 2021
Arctic Oil, Gas Production Is Booming Despite Climate Fears, Bloomberg, 23 September 2021
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