TotalEnergies will appeal South Africa’s landmark greenwashing ruling

Hello and welcome back to Energy Source, coming to you from New York, where titans of industry, policymakers and environmental activists gather for Climate Week.

My colleagues at the Financial Times and I have a busy schedule of interviews and events and will do our best to report the highlights of what has become one of the biggest annual climate events in the calendar.

We’re kicking off today with a first scoop: an interview with Jennifer Granholm, the US energy secretary, who told me that Donald Trump’s plan to gut the Biden administration’s climate law would give China the edge in a global clean-tech race.

“We’d be stabbing ourselves because it would be so stupid,” said the former Michigan governor, who also talks about the LNG hiatus and Trump’s charge that President Joe Biden has undermined “America’s energy independence.”

Our main subject today takes us to South Africa, where our correspondent Rob Rose reports on TotalEnergies, which has come under fire for an advertising campaign.

Thanks for reading,

Jamie

TotalEnergies appeals South African greenwashing ruling

This week, TotalEnergies will challenge a ruling by South Africa’s advertising regulator that it was “misleading” for the French oil company to tout its commitment to “sustainable development” in a campaign featuring the country’s national parks.

The case, the first greening dispute heard by South Africa’s Advertising Regulatory Board, a private self-regulatory body created to protect consumers, highlights how advertising is a new front in the war between activists and oil companies over climate change.

However, Total has faced similar complaints across the globe, including a 2022 case in France brought by Greenpeace and other environmental groups, which accused it of violating European consumer protection law. The company at the time said the allegations of eco-washing were false.

And it’s not just oil companies facing the heat: In August, Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority banned a Virgin Atlantic ad for making “misleading” claims about its first transatlantic flight, which the airline said used “sustainable aviation fuel”.

In South Africa there is a campaign that Total ran in partnership with the national parks body, SANParks, where it offered prizes for people who uploaded photos in these parks while tagging Total. He claimed in the announcement that “we are committed to sustainable development and environmental protection”.

Fossil Free South Africa, the non-profit advocacy group that brought the greenwashing complaint to the ARB, says it was a “completely false and misleading claim” as Total is the 19th largest greenhouse gas emitter of the greenhouse, according to the InfluenceMap Carbon think tank. Majors database and develops oil and gas projects in Africa.

In its initial argument at the tribunal, Total rejected the claim, saying that “limiting the consequences of global warming and providing energy is a global emergency around which TotalEnergies has defined its strategy”.

It added that this was not an “advertisement” but rather a “corporate communication” about its social responsibility program.

But in mid-August, the advertising body ruled that Total’s claim was “misleading”, adding that it did amount to “advertising claims”.

“(Total) has shown that many of its projects are indeed geared towards sustainable development. There is no doubt that this is an issue at the top of (his) priority list. However, there is no doubt that (Total’s) core business is directly opposed to the issue of sustainable development,” the finding reads.

On Thursday, Total will appeal the finding, in which the regulator said South African advertisers and marketing agencies should not accept any advertising from the company, which it said was committed to “sustainable development”. when it comes to national parks.

“This discovery is the first of its kind in South Africa, but is the latest in a series of discoveries around the world confirming that fossil fuel companies should not be able to erase their images by falsely claiming ‘green’ credentials ” and hiding the real ones. and the devastating impact on their businesses,” said Tracey Davies, chief executive of Just Share, a South African shareholder activist non-profit.

But in response to questions from Energy Source this week, Total spokeswoman Marion Viry denied the company was involved in greenwashing its credentials.

“The challenge is to build tomorrow’s energy system while continuing to provide the energy the world needs today,” she said. “TotalEnergies has invested $5 billion in renewable and low-carbon energy in 2023 and 2024.”

This is the second year in a row that Total has invested more in low-carbon energy than in new oil and gas projects, Viry said, adding that by 2030, the company will be among the top five energy producers renewable.

It’s a claim the French company has made repeatedly. After the annual general meeting in May last year, Total chief executive Patrick Pouyanné hit out at “promoters” who accused the company of greenwashing, saying “we are convinced of the credibility of our climate transition plan”.

What’s at stake

In South Africa, while Total’s campaign with SANParks is no longer running, the advertising authority’s decision will still have ramifications for how oil and gas companies market their clean energy efforts going forward.

“What happens in the appeal will be closely watched as it will set a precedent for how companies talk about their environmental commitments,” said Thameena Dhansay, campaign manager for Fossil Free South Africa.

Dhansay told Energy Source that globally, fossil fuel companies such as Total have changed their communication strategy as the political temperature on climate change has risen globally.

“Since the 1970s, many oil companies have chosen a strategy of climate denial. But this has evolved into climate delay — that is, promising to reach a net zero goal by 2050. What they’re saying is “we’re going to take action, but we can’t do it right now,” she said.

Fossil Free South Africa said it plans to lodge complaints against other oil and gas companies with the advertising body to ensure they are held accountable for misleading consumers.

“In an ideal world, it wouldn’t be up to a small industry regulator to deal with an important issue like the greenwashing of the fossil fuel industry,” said David Le Page, the group’s director. “Rather, governments should take it more seriously, given the opportunity it presents to mislead consumers and society.”

The South African case illustrates how high the stakes have become for oil and gas companies, which have invested millions in marketing their efforts to mitigate climate change.

Gail Schimmel, chief executive of the Advertising Council of South Africa, told Energy Source that her entity is developing a special code to deal with greenwashing disputes, which are becoming more common globally.

Schimmel said battles around the world between activists and companies over their environmental practices have led to “greenhushing” — companies choosing not to communicate their climate goals at all for fear of being embroiled in legal disputes. “This would obviously be a problem if it caused companies not to invest in green initiatives,” she said. (Rob Rose)

Power points

• California has sued ExxonMobil, alleging the oil giant misled the public for half a century about the sustainability of its plastic products.

• The US has proposed banning Chinese software and components from vehicles over fears Beijing could collect data on American drivers and hack internet-connected cars.

• Western nations have joined forces to break China’s grip on essential minerals, announcing a funding network for raw material supply projects.

Energy Source is written and edited by Jamie Smyth, Myles McCormick, Amanda Chu, Tom Wilson and Malcolm Moore, with support from the FT’s global reporting team. It reaches us at [email protected] and follow us on X at @FTEnergy. Keep up to date with previous editions of the newsletter Here.