Total will not renew its 2021 membership at the American Petroleum Institute (API) for 2021 due to the discrepancies with the major U.S. oil portal on climate policy, the French oil and gas supermaster said on Friday.
For 2019 and 2020, Total found that API’s positions were “partially aligned” with its own, but there are still some differences. These include supporting APIs for the feedback of US regulations on methane emissions, which Total opposed in November 2019, and API’s membership in the Transportation Fairness Alliance, which opposes subsidies for electric vehicles. The API also has different positions in terms of carbon prices than those of Total.
“In addition, during the recent election, API provided its support to candidates who argued against the participation of the United States in the Paris Agreement,” Total said in a statement.
‘As part of our Climate Ambition announced in May 2020, we are committed to ensuring in a transparent manner that the industry associations of which we are members take positions and messages that are consistent with those of the Group in the fight against climate change. “, Said Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and CEO of Total.
Total is betting on growing its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and renewable businesses profitably as part of its new strategy and net zero agenda.
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In September, Pouyanné told the French newspaper Le Parisien that the company intended to be one of the world’s top five producers of renewable energy. The company’s operating composition today consists of 55 percent oil, 40 percent gas and less than 5 percent electricity from renewable energy, Pouyanné said, noting that Total’s operations in 2050 will be divided into 20 percent oil, 40 percent gas and 40 percent renewable energy. .
Total is not the only Europe-based oil supermaster to have left the largest U.S. oil lobbies over differences in climate policy.
Last year, BP left three US energy trading associations, the main lobby refinement group, the US Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), the Western Energy Alliance (WEA) and the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), after in an in-depth review that the three associations do not have climate policies that are in line with BP’s goals and support for the Paris Agreement. A year earlier, Shell had left the refinement lobby due to ‘significant maladaptation’ in climate-related positions.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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