Support to global initiatives

Aside from complying with national regulations in force in every country where the Group operates, Total reiterates each year, since 2002, its support for the United Nations Global Compact, of which it is one of the companies recognized as LEAD. The Group also follows the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights since their adoption in 2011.

The challenges posed by climate change require a collective effort. The Group has joined various international initiatives that involve the private and the public sectors, notably:

• carbon pricing (the World Bank’s Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition; the United Nations Global Compact’s Caring for Climate initiative; Paying for Carbon call: an initiative by Total and five other industry leaders);

• the end of routine flaring of associated gas (the World Bank’s Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 initiative);

• control over methane emissions (Oil & Gas Methane Partnership of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition; the Oil & Gas Climate Initiative in cooperation with UN Environment and EDF, etc.);

• greater transparency: support of the recommendations from the G20 Financial Stability Board Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

More information on our climate challenges

• better access to energy for populations of emerging countries through a partnership with SE4All.

More information on our program Total Access to Energy Solutions

Total also actively supports collaborative and multi-stakeholder initiatives in areas in which the coordinated involvement of governments, companies and civil society is key to global progress:

• biodiversity: in 2018, Total joined the Act4Nature initiative and made commitments to protect biodiversity;

• circular economy: Total is a founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, launched in 2019, which brings together companies in the plastics and consumer goods value chain to provide solutions for the disposal of plastic waste in the environment, especially in oceans, and to promote their recycling in a circular economy.

More information on our environmental challenges

• diversity: Total signed in 2010 the “Women’s Empowerment Principles – Equality Means Business” set out by the United Nations Global Compact. In 2016, Total endorsed the Close the gender gap – a call to action of the World Economic Forum, and, in 2018, it signed the pledge for diversity as part of the European Roundtable of Industrialists;

• disability: in October 2018, Total signed the International Labor Organization (ILO) Global Business and Disability Network Charter. In January 2020, Total joined The Valuable 500, a global initiative aiming at explicitly putting the inclusion of people with disabilities and the unlocking of their potential in the agenda of multinational companies;

• reduction of inequalities is facilitated by the development of social dialogue to favor more inclusive economic growth: Total was one of the first French companies to adhere to the Global Deal initiative at the end of 2017.

More information on our social challenges

• financial transparency: the Group has adhered to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) since its launch in 2002;

• responsible tax principles: the Group publicly supports the B-Team’s responsible tax principles;

• fight against corruption: Total joined the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) in 2016, and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer has been co-chairman since the end of 2019.

More information on our challenges related to fighting corruption and tax evasion

• The challenge of security and respect for human rights by being a member of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPSHR) since 2012. 

More information on our human rights challenges