PARIS (Reuters) – Five activists from campaign group Greenpeace climbed up a building near TotalEnergies’ Paris headquarters on Friday and unfurled a banner criticising the oil major’s climate change strategy, a Reuters journalist at the site said.
Greenpeace opposes Total’s continued exploration of oil and gas, despite a ‘climate emergency’, a Greenpeace spokesperson told Reuters.
The banner included a large photo of Total CEO and Chairman Patrick Pouyanne under a ‘Wanted’ heading.
Barriers had already been erected around the entrances of Total’s offices in Paris’ La Defense district on Thursday evening, with employees told to work from home on Friday.
Activists and climate-focused investors have ramped up pressure on the world’s leading oil and gas companies in recent years, frequently derailing shareholder meetings.
Earlier this week climate activists disrupted Shell’s annual shareholder meeting, chanting “Shell Kills.”
Total shareholders are due to vote later on whether to approve the progress Total has made on its sustainability and climate goals for 2030.
A vote to re-approve Pouyanne for another three-year mandate is also on the agenda, with some investors urging opposition to protest against what they perceive to be insufficient attention paid to climate concerns.
(This story has been corrected to make clear that the activists were not on Total’s headquarters building but nearby, in the headline and paragraph 1)
(Reporting by Lucien Libert and America Hernandez; writing by Tassilo Hummel; editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten and Elaine Hardcastle)
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