Why we need to collapse Total

Fossil capitalism is organised globally. It has its fingers everywhere. In each government, every press agency, every media outlet and network, in anything that money can buy. It articulates its strategies, coordinates its wars and dictates the policies that doom us to climate collapse. They have known about climate change since the 1960’s. They have coordinated for decades to spread misinformation to mislead Humanity and cut the essential action to prevent climate chaos.1

They never stopped. They never will. Unless we make them.

From this November on, we’re coming for them. In different countries, we are and we will keep mobilising, protesting and blocking. In November we are focusing in one of of the biggest oil & gas companies in the world – Total Energies. This French multinational is present in 130 countries and is extremely proud of their long history of fossil fuel extraction all over the world. It is neck deep into promoting the climate collapse, with mass investments in new fossil fuel projects, oil and gas fields, pipelines, offshore drilling, fracking destruction, tar sands and the destruction of lives and the livelihoods of millions of indigenous communities, peasants and every landscape they set their eyes on. They have spent billions to make trillions. They have hired armies of lobbyists, mercenaries and political campaigners to keep oil, gas flowing, in whichever situation.

Total is one of the largest historical contributors to climate change2, with emissions greater than most countries in the world. With the pushback from climate protests in the last years, they have greenwashed themselves3 to try and look like something else, whilst simultaneously pushing for EACOP4, a massive new pipeline in Uganda and Tanzania, building a LNG project in Papua New Guinea5, increasing oil and gas production in war-devastated Iraq6, prompting a military dictatorship in Myanmar 7, and receiving full state protection in Northern Mozambique while local communities are being devastated by climate change and gas-related terrorism8. They maintain their support for fracking in Argentina9, tar sands in Canada, and the widespread exploration of oil and gas.

They never stopped. They never will. Unless we make them.

As their investments jump from country to country, as their destruction-ridden profit keeps building on the collapse of our climate, we must take them on at the global scale. We must blockade them and march against them, from France to Mozambique, from Bangladesh to Argentina, from Uganda to Canada. From their refineries to their pipelines, from their boardrooms to the bank vaults10, from their offshore platforms to their neighbourhood gas stations. They need to be fought on a global scale as a joint effort from peoples and social movements worldwide.

We need to collapse Total, before Total collapses us.

Join us. Its time to bring the fight to them.

  1. https://totalknew.com/ ↩︎

  2. https://climateaccountability.org/pdf/CarbonMajorsRpt2017%20Jul17.pdf ↩︎

  3. https://www.clientearth.org/the-greenwashing-files/total/
    Following a global greenwashing movement from oil giants, Total recently changed their name to TotalEnergies and announced the intention to be carbon neutral by 2050. This rebranding was part of a broader strategy that has seen a massive incrase over the last years in marketing budget to promote a green image. Despite this attempt to disconnect their brand from fossil fuels, the company is still producing 447 barrils of fossuel fuel energy for each barrel of renewable enery - https://www.greenpeace.fr/emprise-total.
    Coherent with their greenwashing strategy, Total converted their refinery in the south of France in a biorefinery to produce palm oil based carburants. As part of this project, Total received an authorization to import up to 650.000 tones of palm oil from Indonesia and Malasya, making their contribute to decades of deforestation in south east asia - https://www.greenpeace.fr/deforestation-total-au-tribunal/.
    In 2016 Total said they wouldn’t drill in the artic - https://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/05/24/total-rules-out-arctic-oil-drilling-citing-2c-goal/, and then signed a deal with a Russian company for an LNG project in the artic - https://totalenergies.com/media/news/press-releases/russia-total-signs-definitive-agreements-entry-arctic-lng-2. ↩︎

  4. https://www.stopeacop.net ↩︎

  5. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/new-urgency-at-papua-lng-as-violence-hits-african-project-20210506-p57pcz ↩︎

  6. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-france-total-idUKBRE9670IT20130708 ↩︎

  7. https://www.justiceformyanmar.org/stories/total-profiteering ↩︎

  8. https://www.amisdelaterre.org/total-abandonne-ses-responsabilites-avec-son-annonce-de-force-majeure-sur-le-gaz-du-mozambique/ On their way towards becoming an expert on abandoning conflict areas and escaping any form of accountability, Total decided to leave Cabo Delgado LNG In april 2021, declaring force majeure and withdrawing all its staff from the area, whilst neglecting any previous commitments towards locals communities. The same reasons where used to leave Yémen in 2015, a site that ended up being used as a militar base and secret prison by the UAE milicies. ↩︎

  9. With fracking bans placed now all over Europe because of its social and environmental impacts, Total continues to raise their investment in the dirtiest fossil fuel projects, with an increase in its interest in the license in Vaca Muerta from 27.27% to 41% in 2017, thus continuing to support companies that are fracking, destroying the health and livelihoods of local communities in Argentina. ↩︎

  10. Who is financing Total - https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2021/02/24/protect-the-climate-but-finance-total/ ↩︎