Pro-climate activists from Attac, Avaaz, 350.org, and Action Justice Climat Paris staged a visual protest at La Défense Plaza in Paris, France, on Friday, May 29, to draw attention to climate concerns.
The protest comes amidst the ongoing TotalEnergies’ annual general meeting, to denounce the financial and political support the company continues to receive from the French government despite its concerns over its massive profits and fossil fuel projects blamed for ongoing human, climate, and environmental impacts.
In front of the TotalEnergies tower on Friday, the pro-climate organisations staged a scene depicting President Emmanuel Macron feeding a TotalEnergies pipeline with French taxpayers’ money.
Patrick Pouyanné, TotalEnergies’ CEO, was also depicted surrounded by overflowing profits, against a backdrop of impacts linked to fossil fuel expansion, notably TotalEnergies’ East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) in Uganda and Tanzania and the Mozambique LNG project.
The groups urged the French government to stop protecting TotalEnergies, accusing the oil firm of continuing to rake in billions in profits and invest in new oil and gas projects, with political and financial support from the French government, including through public institutions linked to French citizens’ savings.
The groups called on the government to end public support for TotalEnergies’ fossil fuel expansion and to tax the company’s profits, which they said had skyrocketed since the start of the war in Iran.
The action comes on the heels of the release of a new Earth Insight report on EACOP, which documents the project’s major risks to communities, wetlands, protected areas, and water resources in the Lake Victoria basin.
Laure Fourquet, Avaaz senior campaigner, said, “While TotalEnergies rakes in billions in profits through fossil fuel expansion, French taxpayers’ money end up tied to destructive projects like EACOP that threaten communities and ecosystems. This damages democracy as much as it does our climate: no one asked French citizens whether their savings should be used to support new oil and gas projects of one of the planet’s biggest polluters. The government must stop protecting TotalEnergies, halt all new investments of our savings in its fossil fuel projects, and finally tax oil superprofits.”
Raphaël Pradeau, Attac France spokesperson, said, “TotalEnergies pays zero euros in corporate taxes in France through tax evasion, yet received €400 million in public aid in 2024, including €53 million in research tax credits. This scandal must end. What we’re calling for is straightforward: not one euro of public aid for companies that evade taxes. The government must also end its refusal to tax TotalEnergies’ superprofits. A concrete solution exists: unitary taxation of multinationals’ profits that will ensure TotalEnergies pays its fair share of taxes.”
Also, Fanny Petitbon, 350.org France country manager stated that, “France is facing a convergence of crises: a record heatwave, an energy crisis, and a cost-of-living crisis. This is no coincidence – these are symptoms of a system built on oil and gas. While families watch their energy and grocery bills climb and farmers struggle with soaring fertilizer costs, TotalEnergies is posting some of its best financial results.
“This is a political choice: Poland, Portugal, and the United Kingdom have all introduced mechanisms to tax excess fossil fuel profits. France, however, is dragging its feet. Taxing those profits would compensate people for what they’ve lost, signal to investors that the fossil fuel model has no future, and redirect capital towards the sectors we actually need. We are told that taxing large corporations is risky. What is truly risky is doing nothing while temperatures and the costs of living keep rising.”
Nour Bounaidja, general coordinator of Climate Justice Action Paris, said, “For decades, TotalEnergies built its wealth on fossil fuel exploitation to the detriment of local populations and the environment. Civil society and affected communities are risking life and limb to expose TotalEnergies’ impunity, while the multinational rakes in tens of billions of euros in profits and handsomely rewards its shareholders.
“We strongly denounce attempts to silence organizations mobilizing against TotalEnergies. This is a strategy we know all too well, where the State becomes complicit by drastically cutting the financial aid that allows us to organise, and ultimately play our democratic role as a counterweight to power.”
