Like other oil majors, TotalEnergies has been involved in numerous cases of corruption, underpaying staff, violating human rights and other social impacts. A brief overview of some of TotalEnergies' involvement in controversies can be found here. Below we mention some of TotalEnergies' most severe social and human rights impacts.

Land acquisition and resettlement Uganda TotalEnergies E&P owns a majority stake (62%) in the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, which is likely to resettle local communities and endanger their livelihoods. The oil extraction is likely to affect agriculture, livestock rearing, and fishing communities (see for more details here).

TotalEnergies faces a lawsuit after more than two years of investigations have revealed serious violations of and threats to human rights and environmental abuses including land grabbing and intimidation, all in relation to planned drilling in the heart of a protected natural area in Uganda. TotalEnergies is the main operator of a mega oil project in Lake Albert and Murchison Falls, a protected natural park in Uganda. TotalEnergies plans to drill over 400 wells, extracting around 200,000 barrels of oil per day. A 1,445 kilometer long pipeline will be built to transport the oil, impacting communities and nature in Tanzania as well as Uganda. France's new Duty of Vigilance law compels TotalEnergies to meet its human rights obligations concerning this project (Business & Human Rights Resource Centre).

Forced displacements, militarisation Mozambique TotalEnergies is part of the joint venture developing the Mozambique LNG pipeline. The project has severe social impacts on communities in terms of forced displacements, militarisation and health (See here for specific details).

Violating Indigenous rights, Vaca Muerta Argentina TotalEnergies is one of the many companies that wants to develop the shale gas and oil reserves in Vaca Muerta, Argentina, which are among the largest shale oil & gas reserves in the world. The project has severe impact on public health, worker safety, air pollution, damaging ancestral lands of Indigenous people and will likely cause fracking-induced earthquakes in the future (See here for specific details).

Climate change Even though Total rebranded itself to 'TotalEnergies' as an intended illustration of its investments in the production of green electricity, at the moment its business plan is nowhere near being Paris-aligned according to the latest report on the oil majors from Oil Change International. TotalEnergies has set an absolute Scope 1, 2 and 3 emission target for the EU, UK and Norway but only an intensity target for its Scope 3 emissions outside of Europe. TotalEnergies' 'Net-Zero by 2050' pledge only includes scope 1, 2 and 3 in the EU, UK and Norway and scope 1 and 2 for the rest of the world. Alltough this may sound ambitious, it only equates to about 13% TotalEnergies total emissions (scope 1, 2 and 3) worldwide, since the bulk of TotalEnergies' emissions fall in scope 3 outside of Europe.

In 2019 TotalEnergies' operations were responsible for 41 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. From 1965 to 2017 TotalEnergies' CO2 emissions equivalent amounted to 12.35 billion tonnes, according to Climate Accountability Institute, which makes TotalEnergies one the largest contributors to the adverse impacts of climate change worldwide.

While the International Energy Agency (IEA) clearly states that 'there is no need for investment in new fossil fuel supply in our net zero pathway' if we are to reach net zero by 2050, TotalEnergies is still pouring most of its investments into new fossil fuel projects. Examples of TotalEnergies' latest fossil fuel projects can be found here.

Altough TotalEnergies left the 'American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers' group - a lobby group defending the interests of big oil - in 2019, TotalEnergies still spent about USD 30 million on lobbying to delay, control or block policies to tackle climate change. At the moment, TotalEnergies has not made any commitments to stop it's lobbying practices altogether.