Total will not renew its membership of the American Petroleum Institute (API) for 2021 due to disagreements with the main US oil lobby on climate policies, the French oil and gas supermajor said on Friday.
For 2019 and 2020, Total found the API positions “partially aligned” with theirs, but some divergences remain. This includes API support for reversing U.S. regulation of methane emissions, to which Total objected in November 2019, and API membership in the Transportation Fairness Alliance, which opposes subsidies for electric vehicles. The API also has different positions than Total’s regarding the price of carbon.
“In addition, the API gave its support during the recent elections to candidates who argued against the United States’ participation in the Paris Agreement,” Total said in a statement.
“Within the scope of our Climate Ambition made public in May 2020, we are committed to ensuring, in a transparent manner, that the sectoral associations of which we are part adopt positions and messages aligned with those of the Group in the fight against climate change”, Total president and CEO Patrick Pouyanné.
Total is betting on the profitable growth of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and renewables businesses as part of its new strategy and zero net agenda.
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Pouyanné told the French newspaper Le Parisien in September that the company plans to be among the world’s top five producers of renewable energy. The company’s mix of operations today is 55 percent oil, 40 percent gas and less than 5 percent electricity from renewable sources, said Pouyanné, noting that in 2050, Total’s operations will be split by 20 percent oil, 40 percent gas and 40 percent renewable energy.
Total is not the only oil supermajor based in Europe to abandon the main American oil lobbies because of differences in climate policies.
Last year, BP pulled out of three U.S. energy trade associations, the main refining lobby group, American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), Western Energy Alliance (WEA) and Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) , after noting in a – in-depth review so that these three associations do not have climate policies aligned with BP’s objectives and their support for the Paris Agreement. A year earlier, Shell left the refining lobby because of ‘material misalignment’ in climate-related positions.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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