*[Enwl-eng] Fw: Total CEO scolds politicians: "Get it together!"

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From: Sigurd Enge <sigurd at bellona.no> 
Sent: 9. oktober 2019 17:21
Subject: Total CEO scolds politicians: "Get it together!" 



Clean voice from an oil major:
The CEO of global oil group Total confronts politicians unfiltered. He is tired of governments and parliaments that talk about the "climate crisis" without making any decisions.

Photo: Benoit Tessier/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix


BY KELD LOUIE PEDERSEN
Published: 09.10.19 12:51

LONDON

"I completely agree with the young people on climate strike. Politicians talk and talk, but nothing happens."

The gloves are off for Patrick Pouyanné, chief executive at French oil major Total.

He is tired of governments and parliaments that talk about the "climate crisis" without making any decisions.

"Time and again I hear in various contexts that big, international oil companies like Total are dinosaurs. We continue to rumble, but in a moment we'll be extinct, because climate change has made us redundant," Pouyanné says.

He rounds off the first day of the conference Oil & Money 2019, arranged for the 40th time by Energy Intelligence, which has been met by activists from the movement Extinction Rebellion, which demands a carbon-neutral world by as early as 2025.

The UN's Paris Climate Accord targets a carbon-neutral world in 2050, whereas the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that the world only has 11 years left if global temperature rises are to be limited to 1.5 degrees Celcius.

  Constantly, we hear politicians say that they will ban coal. Well, then do it

  PATRICK POUYANNÉ, CEO, TOTAL

"We constantly hear politicians say that they will ban coal. Well, then do it. Set a date for the ban, so everyone who currently works with coal and has money tied down in coal knows what to plan for. And yes, there are probably many in the steel industry who want an answer as to, when the time comes, how they will make steel without using coal," the Total CEO says, continuing:

"If selling gasoline- and diesel-powered cars is meant to be illegal, then make that decision. On which date will it happen? So far, we are just being met with talk. When will action come? The oil industry is not the only one entitled to answers. So are consumers, the vehicle industry and everyone else connected to cars."

On the first day of Oil & Money 2019, the lack of political will has been a running theme, and quite a few speakers and panel participants have voiced their opinions. A recurring point is that politicians dare not make concrete decisions in the fight against climate change for fear of the consequences.

If selling gasoline- and diesel-powered cars is banned from 2030, sales of such vehicles must be expected to more or less halt long before then, as by 2030 there will probably not be a market for used cars with combustion engines.

Correspondingly, the oil industry will consider the perspectives and further scale down investments. The activity level is already so low that one needs to look almost 70 years back, to 1950, to see a year in which so few new oil discoveries were made.

  At Total, we have anticipated the consequence and, like other major oil companies, we are headed off the retail market

  PATRICK POUYANNÉ, CEO, TOTAL

"What seemingly very few politicians are aware of is that a ban on selling gasoline- and diesel-powered cars in 2030, for instance, could prompt a situation where a large part of the global car fleet will still have combustion engines, especially in developing countries, but when that time comes, there will no longer be the same supply of engine fuels on the market because the investors have disappeared," Pouyanné underscores.

"At Total, we have anticipated the consequence and, like other major oil companies, we are headed off the retail market. In Europe, we only have a network of gas stations in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, but here, more than 40 percent of sales will stem from something other than engine fuels," he adds.

Two years ago, Total acquired Maersk Oil from A.P. Møller-Mærsk, and that has proven to be a good business, Pouyanné informs:

"In just 18 months we have paid off half the buying sum."

Total paid USD 7.45 billion.

English Edit: Jonas Sahl Jørgensen





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From: Oskar Njaa 
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2019 11:40 AM
Subject: FW: Total CEO scolds politicians: "Get it together!" 





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