French oil major TotalEnergies, while expressing doubts over the global economy’s ability to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 as outlined in the Paris Agreement, said that it will have to adapt its own climate ambitions as a result. The company had previously said it had an ambition to be carbon neutral by 2050.
The goals outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming require a significant drop in carbon emissions by 2050 across the verticals of the global socio-economic order, by shifting completely away from oil and gas consumption.
“We must, however, confront our ambition with reality and acknowledge that our societies have embarked on a transition, but at a pace that does not yet allow for the collective achievement of carbon neutrality as pursued under the Paris Agreement. Our own ability to achieve carbon neutrality together with society depends on technical innovation, public policies and consumer choices, meaning that the pathways to our carbon neutrality ambition must be reassessed and adapted over time in line with the evolution of the global energy system,” TotalEnergies said in its annual sustainability report.
While TotalEnergies’ European peers BP and Shell aim to bring down the carbon intensity in their energy products by 2050, they have also said that the pace at which society transitions away from hydrocarbons would be an important factor to achieve the deadline.
“The company is not in a position to adopt a transition plan as defined by the European reporting standards and, as a result, cannot formulate ‘Net Zero’ targets in the meaning of these standards,” TotalEnergies said.
Recently, Reuters reported that “in 2025, the French oil major emitted 368 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent, the bulk of which were so-called Scope 3 emissions from clients burning purchased fuels. This was down from 376 million tons in 2024 and within the company’s target to keep these emissions under 400 million tons through to 2030.”