Community Leaders Rally Globally to Push Back on Polluting Companies as TotalEnergies Expected to Highlight Jump in Profits on the Back of Iran War at Annual Meeting

Paris, France – TotalEnergies annual general meeting (AGM) will be held Friday, May 29. Meanwhile, people are rallying in a Week of Action across Africa, Europe, and Latin America with nearly 70 actions in 20 countries to push back on TotalEnergies and other polluting companies, demanding they cease operations and fix past harms. Events will highlight the impacts of TotalEnergies’ East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), Mozambique Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Export Terminal, and more.

Meanwhile, as Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal war on Iran leads to death and destruction, TotalEnergies cashes in. At the annual general meeting, TotalEnergies is expected to highlight a significant jump in profits on the back of the Iran war. TotalEnergies reported $5.4 billion in profits over the first three months of 2026, a 29% increase compared to the same period in 2025. This is tied to its large financial trading arm that profits from war-driven volatility.

Fossil fuel dependence makes economies more volatile, puts communities in danger, and helps the wealthy few profit from wars. Accelerating an equitable transition towards renewable energy is essential to a more stable and peaceful future.

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Note to editors: interviews can be arranged with spokespeople, photos of events will be available.

Zaki Mamdoo, StopEACOP Campaign Coordinator, said:
“TotalEnergies will gather at its AGM to celebrate billions in profits extracted from the land, labour and suffering of ordinary people across the world. From EACOP to Mozambique LNG and beyond, its operations are inseparable from displacement, repression, ecological destruction and deepening precarity and poverty. The Global ‘Kick Polluters Out’ Week of Action is a declaration that working class and frontline communities across the world refuse to continue paying the price for the enrichment of fossil fuel giants and their shareholders. We are confronting not only Total, but a global economic system organised around extraction, exploitation and private profit and we are confident that history will see us vindicated.”

Trust Chikodzo, Kick Polluters Out Coordinator, Magamba Network, said:
“Right now people in Nairobi are burning barricades over fuel prices while TotalEnergies counts record profits from war and chaos. The Global South is not collateral damage, we are being bled dry so money flows abroad. We have the sun, the wind, the minerals, what we need is to finance people-powered systems and kick these polluters out.”

Kete Fumo, Justiça Ambiental! (JA!), said:
“Total’s project in Cabo Delgado in North Mozambique has left local community farmers without land and fisherfolk without access to the sea, for over 5 years, thereby destroying lives and livelihoods. With the project now restarted, there has been a huge explosion of activity in the area that is causing major environmental impacts, such as dredging in the tropical coral reefs in one of the biodiverse marine ecosystems in the world. This is further impacting the local communities that depend on the environment for their survival. We must stop Total from destroying lives and the environment.”

John Beard, CEO, Port Arthur Community Action Network, said:
“Total cannot claim to respect human rights while its refinery in my hometown of Port Arthur, Texas releases high emissions of cancer causing benzene, its drilling operations in Arlington, Texas take place dangerously close to schools, daycares, and homes, and it is accused of complicity in war crimes against civilians in Mozambique. I attended TotalEnergies AGM last year, and rather than directly address my questions, Mr. Pouyanne deflected. So I say again to Mr. Pouyanne, the Board and shareholders, that our lives matter; we refuse to be sacrificed for profit, and Total must cease its harmful acts. We will continue to hold him and Total accountable, and demand they respect our basic human right to clean air, land and water, and protect our lives and health.”

Sonja Meister, Campaigner, urgewald, said:
“TotalEnergies leads its direct competitors in fossil fuel expansion in autocratic states, “hybrid regimes,” and countries with high political and economic risks. This shows, TotalEnergies continues to expand its fossil fuel presence in some of the most unstable and repressive countries in the world—while ignoring the consequences for local people. This game of roulette has serious consequences for civil society, ecosystems, and the climate alike.”

Smith Nwokocha, Coordinator, Quest For Growth and Development Foundation, said:
“As TotalEnergies holds its Annual General Meeting, communities in the Niger Delta continue to bear the devastating consequences of pollution, gas flaring, and climate change driven by fossil fuel extraction. Rising floods, loss of livelihoods, environmental degradation, and public health impacts underscore the urgent need for polluters to take responsibility, deliver climate justice, and invest in a just transition for affected communities.”

Gerald Barekye Executive Director at Centre for Environmental Research and Agricultural Innovations (CERAI) Uganda said:
“Today the ongoing EACOP project has greatly contributed to human and environmental rights violations. The people of Kijumba Village in Hoima district continue to depend on dirty water since their water sources were destroyed to pave the way for the EACOP project. Local communities can’t continue to suffer under Total’s profit making projects. TotalEnergies should pay damages caused to EACOP affected communities and stop corporate greenwashing.”

Comfort Tusingwire, Team leader, Initiative for Green Planet (IGP)-Uganda, said:
“The EACOP project funded by Total Energies has displaced more than 7,000 families from their ancestral lands in Uganda which is their only source of livelihood, destroyed the eco-biodiverse areas in the Albertine region, environmental human rights defenders who dare to speak up against these injustices are harassed, arrested and charged with fabricated criminal offences. Total Energies must provide reparations for the harm caused to communities, environment and climate and leave Africa for Africans to determine their energy needs and shape their future’’

Brighton Aryampa, Ugandan Environmental and human rights lawyer working with Youth for Green Communities (YGC), said:
“Africa stands at a defining moment, the time has come for our continent to evolve, align itself with renewable energy, and reject systems that deepen inequality and environmental harm. We must harness the legal, economic, and social opportunities before us to scale decentralized, affordable, accessible renewable energy solutions that empower communities and secure a just future for generations across Africa. Polluters must no longer dictate our development pathway.”

Ziada Kassimu, Executive Director, Green Conservers, said:
“Communities in Tanzania were promised development, jobs, and improved livelihoods through the EACOP project, yet many families are experiencing the opposite reality. Thousands of people lost land that sustained their farming and food security, compensation processes were delayed or inadequate, and many households have fallen deeper into poverty while waiting for restoration support that does not match their real economic needs. The livelihoods restoration programs introduced in affected areas remain largely ineffective, offering limited training and unsustainable alternatives that cannot replace the income, dignity, and stability communities once had from their land. As Total holds its Annual General Meeting, we join the growing call for accountability, justice for affected communities, and an end to destructive fossil fuel expansion.”

Rebecca Spring, organizer with Planet Over Profit in NYC, said:
“The big banks, such as JP Morgan Chase and CitiBank here in New York, are carelessly throwing away the future of our planet and destroying people’s livelihoods by funding Total Energies’ destructive fossil fuels projects. In New York we are demonstrating in front of the JP Morgan Chase global headquarters to demand they stop funding The East African Crude Oil Pipeline, which has received significant funding through these banks, has already displaced 13,000 people from their homes. The pipeline is tearing through protected waterways and biodiversity areas in Uganda and Tanzania, which will be irrevocably damaged by the inevitable oil spills from the pipeline. We demand an end to the funding of EACOP and all oil and gas pipelines.”

Cathy Allen, Campaigner, Extinction Rebellion Edinburgh, said:
“Financial institutions that fund TotalEnergies are busy glossing and shining their investment reports with a veneer of ‘sustainability’ to cover up their violent tracks.  But we see these financiers’ signatures writ large on every one of those who bear the burden of the mega EACOP pipeline ripping across their livelihoods, water, food, culture and wellbeing and pumping yet more polluting heat on an already destabilised climate. Investing in TotalEnergies, who knowingly generate these and many more harms, is surely by any moral compass, at the very least, conspiracy in global terrorism.’

Brigitte Alarcon, Campaigner, Beyond Fossil Fuels, said:
“Europe is in the middle of another fossil gas crisis, yet TotalEnergies is doubling down on fossil gas through a joint venture with Czech magnate Daniel Křetínský. Presented as additional ‘flexgen’ capacity, this risks entrenching Europe’s dependence on LNG and on the whims of leaders like Putin and Trump in the process, exposing the continent to further geopolitical and economic shocks instead of building a more secure, renewable energy system.”

Christopher J.A. Coutinho, Laudato Si’ Animator, Laudato Si’ Movement said:
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, TotalEnergies. We see you and your ilk for what you are – polluters bilking billions at the devastating cost of the ‘least’ amongst us, who are the majority of us. We see your filthy fossil fuel ‘projects’ and ‘products’ that are destroying and killing, both life and livelihood across the world. STOP.”

Paul Musyimi, Social Movements Inspirator, said:
“In Africa, land is not a commodity, it is spiritual. We are bound to our soil because our ancestors rest in it. Their breath fills the air above, their names run through the roots below. No amount of money can match that value. Global Platform Tanzania and Green Conservers Will be standing in solidarity with the Bomba Sita community in Muheza, Tanga, as they host a cultural dialogue space using storytelling, poetry, drama, and discussions to amplify local voices on land, livelihoods, environmental protection, and justice under the theme: Community Voices for Land, Livelihoods, and a Just Future.”

David Tong, Industry Campaign Manager, Oil Change International, said:
“No corporation should make billions from war, suffering, and energy insecurity. Total Energies made $5.4 billion in profits over the first three months of 2026, a 29% increase compared to the first quarter of 2025. Fossil fuel dependence makes economies more volatile, puts communities in danger, and helps the wealthy few profit from wars. Accelerating an equitable transition towards renewable energy is essential to a more stable and peaceful future.”