#AskPP – Episode 4
Taxation and energy transition: Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TotalEnergies, gives straight answers to the questions from the French people.
Passant: Oh no, I can’t remember what I said.
Léa: Hello, my name is Léa. Today, I have two questions for you, Mr Pouyanné. Does TotalEnergies pay its taxes in France? That’s my first question. My second one is: can you give me any concrete examples of how TotalEnergies is currently making the energy transition to help the environment?
Patrick Pouyanné: Yes, of course, TotalEnergies pays its taxes in France. As, indeed, it does in every country. where it makes profits. That’s the very principle of taxation. It’s the same in every country where we produce energy We produce oil in Angola, for example, so we pay our taxes there. What we pay in France are the taxes related to our French business. And globally speaking,the contribution to the different budgets, in other words, the State budgets, such as social security here in France, which amounts to around €2 billion. That’s what TotalEnergies pays.
As for concrete examplesof the energy transition, there are plenty of concrete examples of transition now, there are actually quite a lot right now, since TotalEnergies has a portfolio of more than 20 gigawatts of “renewables” - that probably doesn’t mean much to you, but it represents hundreds of renewable energy projects, including solar power projects and offshore wind projects. I’d encourage you to take a trip to Scotland, if it’s something that interests you. Just off the coast of Scotland, there’s a huge offshore wind farm that is financed and developed by TotalEnergies. We also have solar power projects all across France. In Aix-en-Provence, we recently launched a number of agrophotovoltaic initiatives with a French startup called Ombrea, which has just become part of TotalEnergies. So we’re definitely taking a hands-on approach to the energy transition. Come and have a chat with some of the people who work for TotalEnergies. They’ll be able to tell you lots more about it
Agathe: Hi, my name’s Agathe, and I’d like to know whether or not you’ve got kids, and what kind of world you hope to leave them?
Patrick Pouyanné: Yes, I’ve got children, four, in fact, who are all as passionate about environmental issues as you. I want to leave them the best world possible. We’ve adjusted our strategy,becoming TotalEnergies instead of just Total, but we’ve decided to continue producing oil and gas to support continued consumer demand. At the same time, however, we’re investing heavily in renewables, as you have seen. Renewables now represents over one-third of our investments. It’s a major transition, a deep-rooted shift for our company, but one that will allow all our employees to sit down with their children, look them in the eye and proudly say not only that they work for TotalEnergies, But that they are responsible citizens too, and that’s hugely important.
It’s absolutely vital we have our employees onboard, and they continue to endorse our actions. 90% of them agree with the way our business is run, and are happy with the Company’s strategy.