Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: TotalEnergies is strategically engaged on science-aligned climate policy, taking a mixture of supportive and oppositional positions. The company supports climate policy in its top-line communications and supports renewable energy legislation. However, the company continues to advocate for the advancement of the role of fossil fuels in the energy mix, particularly fossil gas. The company also retains membership to a number of industry associations that oppose climate regulations.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: TotalEnergies’ top-line messaging on climate policy appears to be mostly positive. In its 2025 Climate and Sustainability Progress Report, published in March 2025, TotalEnergies supported the goals of the Paris Agreement. While the company supported achieving net zero emissions by 2050 through land-use techniques, it also appeared to advocate for a pragmatic approach to emissions reductions which accounts for technological and economic viability in its 2025 Sustainability and Climate Progress Report, published in March 2025.
TotalEnergies has also supported climate regulations, including carbon pricing measures under the EU’s Fit for 55 legislative climate package in its 2024 Climate and Sustainability Progress Report, published in March 2024.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: TotalEnergies appears to be strategically engaged with climate-related regulations in the EU and US. The company is supportive of GHG emissions regulation and renewable energy regulation at the top-level, but advocates to weaken key technical elements of other climate policies. In its 2024 Climate and Sustainability Progress Report, published in March 2024, TotalEnergies supported tripling global renewable energy by 2030. In March 2024 comments on EU Renewable Energy Guidance, the company supported permitting reforms to further develop renewable energy resources.
In its 2025 Climate and Sustainability Progress Report, published in March 2025, the company broadly supported policies to tackle methane emissions. However, in minutes from a May 2023 meeting with the EU Commission’s DG Energy, accessed via Freedom of Information (FOI) request, TotalEnergies labelled the EU Methane Regulation for the energy sector as overly prescriptive and advocated against the inclusion of imported fossil fuels, which would reduce the scope of the policy. Additionally, in April 2025 comments on the EU’s 2030 carbon storage targets, the company advocated to remove producer responsibility requirements for CO2 transport infrastructure and reporting commercial contracts, alongside calling for delays to targets and timelines.
Positioning on Energy Transition: TotalEnergies supports investments in low-carbon technologies and measures to decarbonize the energy mix, including biofuels and renewable hydrogen, but continues to advocate for new fossil gas infrastructure and a long-term role for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in the transport sector.
The company also continues to promote investments in unabated oil and gas, for example in October 2024 comments on the EU Energy Security Fitness Check. Meanwhile, it disclosed its support for LNG project financing in Mozambique on its corporate ‘Advocacy’ webpage, accessed in August 2025.
In the US, TotalEnergies opposed measures to restrict fossil fuel infrastructure development, for example, CEO Patrick Pouyanné appeared to advocate against the Biden administration's decision to pause approvals for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in a February 2024 Upstream article.
On the decarbonization of transport, TotalEnergies appears to support the increased use of bio-based SAF in aviation in the short-term with clear support for a switch to synthetic and/or zero-emissions technologies in the medium to long-term, such as in June 2025 French publication. However, the company advocated for the long-term role of ICE vehicles powered by ‘sustainable and renewable fuels’ in a February 2023 joint statement.
Industry Association Governance: On its corporate website, accessed in August 2025, TotalEnergies has disclosed that it conducts an annual industry association review assessing alignment on climate change policy. Although it does not appear to publish the full review, it does provide some details as to which policy positions it bases its assessment on, alongside a list of industry association memberships and actions taken by the company after each review. Its most recent review excluded six industry associations which are actively engaged on climate policy, such as Équilibre des Énergies, the Natural Gas Supply Association, WindEurope, European Business Aviation Association, Brazilian Association of Wind Energy and New Technologies and Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development. However, it retains memberships to other associations which engage on EU climate-related policies with positions misaligned with science-based pathways to deliver 1.5°C, such as BusinessEurope and FuelsEurope.
A detailed assessment of the company's corporate review on climate policy engagement can be found on InfluenceMap's LobbyMap Investor Hub here.
InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in Q3 2025.