Oil & gas supermajor Total finalised its change of name to TotalEnergies as its CEO said it aims to “become a sort of green energy major”.
Shareholders waved through plans by the French company’s board for the rebranding, which was first announced in February in a bid to reflect a shift towards a broader energy base and electrification.
Chief executive Patrick Pouyanné said: “Energy is reinventing itself, and this energy journey is ours. Our ambition is to be a world-class player in the energy transition. That is why Total is transforming and becoming TotalEnergies.”
The French group has over the last two years emerged as one of the frontrunners among oil & gas groups in terms of embrace of renewable energy, with a 100GW gross target for 2030 that is among the largest of any player globally.
That has already seen it take big positions in solar in the US, Spain and India, and in offshore wind in the UK and most recently Taiwan.
The oil & gas group, which like European peers has set 2050 corporate net zero goals, said it will allocate 20% of net investments to renewables and “low carbon power” this year. That should equate to $2.4bn, up from $2bn in 2020.
But the name change is also certain to attract claims of 'greenwashing', given that even its high level of ambition compared to most of its rivals would still leave TotalEnergies devoting the lion's share of investment to fossil-related activities by the end of the decade.
The French group's name change comes at the end of a difficult week for some of its fellow supermajors.
Shell was told by a Dutch court to massively ramp-up its own decarbonisation agenda, while US giants ExxonMobil and Chevron both came under pressure from investors.
