Elisabeth Borne reacted to the actions carried out on Friday by environmental activists to hinder the holding of the general meeting of shareholders of TotalEnergies. Traveling to the Côte d’Or, the Prime Minister judged that the ” climate activists ” are ” in their role of alerting “Reports AFP, while hundreds of people gathered in front of the Salle Pleyel, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, to demonstrate against the climate policy of the French energy company.
” Climate activists are in their role to alert and say that we must speed up. This is also what the government is doing: we all need to speed up the ecological transition “, underlined the head of government. She also wanted to recall that the oil and gas giant had ” initiated its transition to renewable energies “.
Friday morning, scuffles broke out between police and demonstrators. The police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, some of whom were seated in front of the Salle Pleyel. The event was finally able to take place from 10 am. “We regret it, we had to take exceptional measures both in the call for the police and strict control of access to this assembly”, explained the boss of TotalEnergies Patrick Pouyanne in opening.
Of “greenwashing” accuse NGOs
The energy company is asked to accelerate, enjoins the government. The message was also hammered home by the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. Total is investing in renewable energies, but the challenge is to go faster, stronger and above all faster,” she said on FranceInfocalling the energy company to “package” on renewables.
The carbon footprint of TotalEnergies is regularly denounced by NGOs, which point to its ” greenwashing “. On November 2, the NGO Greenpeace published a report in which it reported a minimization of its balance sheet of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2). According to her, the French group issued ” 1.6 billion tons “, four times more CO2 in 2019 than the announced figures (455 million tons), relayed France Blue.
