HomeNewsFrance’s Total Dropping API Membership Over Climate, Political Differences

France’s Total Dropping API Membership Over Climate, Political Differences

1/15/2021

PARIS — Following a detailed analysis of the climate positions of the American Petroleum Institute (API), Total announces its decision not to renew its membership for 2021.

Each year, Total assesses the main industry associations of which it is a member to ensure they are aligned with the Group’s climate positions. This alignment review is based on six key points:

  1. A science-based position that the link between human activity and climate change is an established fact,
  2. Support for the objectives of the Paris Agreement,
  3. Belief in the necessity to implement carbon pricing,
  4. Confidence in the key role that natural gas plays in the energy transition,
  5. Support for policies and initiatives that promote the development of renewable energy, and
  6. Support for the development of CO2 capture and storage.

These items are detailed in Total’s “Getting to Net Zero” report issued in September 2020.

Following the 2019 and 2020 reviews, API's positions were assessed as "partially aligned" with those of the Group. Certain divergences, which have been discussed within the association, remain today:

  • Regarding the role of natural gas, API maintains its support for the rollback of U.S. regulation on methane emissions, which the Group opposed in November 2019;
  • Regarding transport decarbonization, API is part of the Transportation Fairness Alliance, which is opposed to subsidies for electric vehicles;
  • Regarding the carbon pricing principle, API expresses differing positions to those of Total.

Moreover, API gave its support during the recent elections to candidates who argued against the United States’ participation in the Paris Agreement.

An API spokesperson thanked Total for their membership in "this critical forum for our industry."

"We believe that the world’s energy and environmental challenges are large enough that many different approaches are necessary to solve them, and we benefit from a diversity of views," the API spokesperson said. "As a member-driven organization, we do not support subsidizing energy because it distorts the market and ultimately proves harmful to consumers. Our industry’s focus continues to be on taking meaningful action and shaping policy at all levels of government to reduce U.S. emissions and ensure access to affordable and reliable energy.”

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