To reach its ambition of carbon neutrality by 2050, together with society, TotalEnergies is taking action to reduce emissions from its operated industrial facilities (Scope 1 & 2) by over 40% by 2030.
Summary
- Our objectives
- Our levers
- Our progress in 2021
- Improving the efficiency of our facilities
- Toward zero methane emissions
- Reducing our emissions from every source
- Capturing and storing carbon at our facilities
- Offsetting residual emissions with natural carbon sinks
Our objectives
Our primary responsibility as an industrial operator is to reduce the emissions resulting from our operations. In early 2019, TotalEnergies publicly announced its aim to reduce emissions from its operated facilities to less than 40 Mt by 2025 and set itself the target of cutting Scope 1&2 net emissions by at least 40% in 2030 relative to 2015 (including carbon sinks) for its operated activities.
Our levers
The main route to achieving these objectives is developing emissions reduction projects on our industrial sites, using the best technologies available: improving energy efficiency, reducing flaring, reducing methane emissions, supplying renewable electricity, and using CCS for residual emissions.
To reach our net emissions targets, nature-based solutions will, by 2030, offset a limited portion of our emissions.
Our progress in 2021
Scope 1+2 emissions decreased from 41.5 Mt in 2020 to 37.0 Mt (excluding the impact of Covid) between 2020 and 2021, thanks in particular to 120 emissions-reduction initiatives carried out across the Company.
These data include the commissioning of two combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants.
Improving the efficiency of our facilities
Reducing flaring
Restricting routine flaring is a priority for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Since 2000, TotalEnergies has made a commitment not to include this practice for its new projects. As a founding member of the World Bank’s “Zero Routine Flaring by 2030” initiative since 2014, the Company has pledged to end the practice altogether by 2030.
Routine flaring has been reduced by 90% since 2010, and we have set ourselves a new target to bring the level below 0.1 Mm3 per day by 2025.
Occasional, or non-routine, flaring associated with operational issues or the start-up of facilities, has also been addressed with action plans, as has safety flaring, which is used to protect facilities. In Argentina and Bolivia, for example, the Company has reduced safety flaring by half, thanks to continuous monitoring of gas flows and optimized flaring settings.
Using less energy
Improving energy efficiency means reducing the quantity of energy used, and therefore emissions, to produce a given amount of energy.
Improving energy efficiency also involves finding new ways to use waste heat from our units. Several refineries, including Leuna in Germany, have mapped and then quantified their sources of waste heat. Research is underway to see how to use this heat in nearby industrial and municipal ecosystems.
The Company has made a firm commitment to embracing digital technology at its sites as a driver in improving energy performance. As of the end of 2021, 27 of the 46 operated sites using more than 50,000 toe/year were equipped with an auditable energy management system, following for example the ISO 50001 Standard on energy management.
Our Digital Factory develops solutions to improve our energy performance
TotalEnergies’ Digital Factory, which opened in 2020, brings together up to 300 developers and data scientists.
Its mission is to develop the digital solutions the Company needs in order to improve its industrial operations, offer new services to customers (particularly for managing energy consumption), expand into new energies and reduce its environmental impact.
For example, the “E²” digital solution developed by our drillers at the Digital Factory provides a real-time estimation of energy consumption by the various equipment in a drilling rig, along with the associated greenhouse gas emissions. The teams can directly access these data and integrate them seamlessly in operational decisions.
A “CO2 Fighter” team dedicated to reducing our emissions
Since late 2018, a team dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, known as the CO2 Fighters, has been tracking GHG emissions across the Company.
It’s tasked with encouraging a low-carbon culture within the Company, initiating energy efficiency projects, accelerating the electrification process at facilities, and helping to introduce greener forms of energy consumption.
The team has overseen more than 400 emissions reduction projects, most of which have cost less than $10 per ton of CO2. By 2025, 160 upstream projects and more than 200 downstream projects will yield reductions in Scope 1+2 emissions of 2.5 and 4.5 Mt of CO2 respectively
Go Green Project to reduce our Scope 2 emissions from electricity purchases
In 2020, TotalEnergies decided to aim for carbon neutrality for all electricity purchases at its sites operated in Europe by 2025.
All electricity needs at the industrial and commercial sites, as well as our offices, will be met by renewable power produced by TotalEnergies’ regional generation capacity in Europe.
A similar strategy has been adopted in the United States. Taken together, this will represent around 7 TWh/year.
In Europe, these needs will be covered by solar farms acquired in Spain in 2020, offering capacity of 5 GW and production of 10 TWh/year by 2025. Six TWh/year will be routed to European sites under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
For the United States, the Company acquired a portfolio in 2021 of 2.2 GW in solar projects and 0.6 GW in battery storage projects to cover 100% of electricity needs at operated industrial sites, including the Port Arthur refining and petrochemical complex and the La Porte and Carville petrochemical sites.
Scope 2 emissions across the Company’s operated scope should thus be reduced by more than 2 Mt CO2 per year from 2025.
Toward zero methane emissions
Methane is a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 25 times higher than CO2 over 100 years.
In 2021, the IPCC assessed methane’s contribution to current warming at 0.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era. COP26 highlighted the major role that methane emissions reduction must play in limiting global warming, both in its final conclusion (the Glasgow Climate Pact) and through the Global Methane Pledge, a commitment by 105 countries, led by the United States and the European Union* to reduce their methane emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by 2030.
* These countries represent 70% of the global economy and account for nearly half of the planet’s anthropogenic methane emissions.
New objectives…
The Company has been working on reducing its methane emissions for several years. It halved its operated methane emissions between 2010 and 2020.
In line with the Glasgow agreements, the Company is setting new targets for the current decade: reductions from 2020 levels of 50% by 2025 and 80% by 2030.
The Company is also maintaining its target of keeping methane intensity below 0.1% across its operated gas facilities.
…in step with society and the IEA’s Net Zero by 2050 scenario
In December 2021, the European Commission proposed a new E.U. framework for decarbonizing gas markets and reducing methane emissions.
In May 2021, the IEA published the “Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector” report, which outlines a scenario for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. It includes a 75% reduction in methane emissions from the coal, oil and gas industries between 2020 and 2030.
Measuring methane emissions more accurately
The Company is a pioneer in detecting and quantifying emissions across the entire value chain. TotalEnergies operates a site for testing methane emissions measurement technology. Known as the total anomaly detection initiatives (TADI) platform, it is unparalleled in Europe; only one comparable site exists worldwide, in the United States. In addition, TotalEnergies is speeding up deployment of its drone detection technology, AUSEA, at all of its operated sites starting in 2022.
Reducing our emissions from every source
To work towards zero methane emissions, stronger action will be taken on each of these emission sources:
- Reductions in venting: In 2021, the decline from 2020 linked to reduction of vents came to 6 kt per year (projects in Gabon and the U.K.).
- Reductions in flaring: In 2021, the decrease in flaring from 2020 reduced emissions by 1.8 kt per year.
- Leak reduction: annual campaigns to detect and repair leaks at all operated sites will be deployed starting in 2022. In 2021, the drop in emissions associated with the reduction in leaks was 4 kt per year with a significant repair of the OML58 facility in Nigeria.
Moreover, all new projects include strict design criteria for preventing methane emissions: no instrument gas, no continuous cold venting, and the systematic use of closed flares, as was done on the CLOV sites in Angola, Moho-Nord in the Republic of the Congo, and Egina in Nigeria.
Using drones to detect and measure methane emissions
AUSEA consists of a miniature sensor, weighing 1.4 kilograms and mounted on a drone, that quantifies emissions by measuring concentrations in the plume and tracing them back to their source. This technology has proved more accurate than commercially available technology and has been successfully deployed in Nigeria, Congo and the Netherlands.
Capturing and storing carbon at our facilities
Reducing emissions at the facilities also means developing industrial processes for carbon capture, transport and storage (CCS).
The Company has been contributing to the development of these solutions in the Norwegian Sea since 1996 in order to reduce emissions from the Sleipner (2) and Snøhvit natural gas fields. The CO2 associated with that natural gas, known as native CO2, is separated and then re-injected into the subsurface.
Our current CO2 storage projects are located in the North Sea to take advantage of its significant potential, particularly in depleted fields operated by TotalEnergies. Moreover, the regulatory environment within the E.U. is favorable to such projects.
Not only will they allow us to reduce our own emissions but, thanks to additional capacity, also to offer our customers the possibility of storing CO2 emissions to reduce their Scope 1 and our Scope 3 emissions across the entire CCS sector. We are now aiming to expand storage capacity by around 10 Mt CO2 per year by 2030.
Supplying blue hydrogen to our refineries
In the Netherlands, the Company is studying a project to capture 900 ktCO2/year emitted by the hydrogen plant of the Zeeland refinery as of 2026. The CO2 would then be transported and stored as part of the Aramis project.
In France, in July 2021, TotalEnergies joined with four other partners to launch the evaluation of the development in Normandy of a network for the collection and maritime export of CO2.
In Belgium, the Company and its partners are studying the CO2 [email protected] project for the collection and transport CO2 emissions from the Antwerp industrial port. In all three cases, the CO2 would be stored in depleted reservoirs in the North Sea.
Developing transport and storage projects
In Norway, the Company, together with Equinor and Shell, launched Northern Lights, the first large-scale CO2 transport and storage project. Approved by the Norwegian government in 2020, the project is currently in the construction phase. It will allow industrial emitters in Norway and elsewhere in Europe to store their emissions.
In the Netherlands, TotalEnergies and its partners are studying the Aramis project designed to develop a logistics chain and hub in the port of Rotterdam to transport CO2 to depleted offshore fields, some of which are operated by TotalEnergies.
In the United Kingdom, the Company is working with its partners on the Northern Endurance Partnership transport and storage project, which aims to decarbonize the Teesside and Humberside industrial regions.
Offsetting residual emissions with natural carbon sinks
In addition to our actions to prevent and reduce GHG emissions, achieving carbon neutrality with society will require offsetting residual CO2 emissions. For that reason, TotalEnergies is investing in natural carbon sinks, such as forests, regenerative agriculture and wetlands.
The land management model must be integrated and shared with local populations in order to combine and balance the value of agricultural and forestry revenues with that of the co-benefits for populations, soils, biodiversity and the water cycle, and that of carbon credits.
The Company works with experienced partners to manage the long-term approach required and the risks involved in these complex projects. The projects are certified in accordance with the highest standards, such as Vera VCS and CCB.
Peru
Since 2021, TotalEnergies and CIMA (Centro de Conservation, Investigacion y Manejo de Areas Naturales), a Peru-based NGO, have been working together in the Peruvian Amazon to fund projects for preserving the primary forest in Cordilleria Azul National Park, which spans 1.35 million hectares and is included on the IUCN Green List.
These operations include efforts by forest rangers to monitor and prevent the degradation and deforestation of park areas. They also include programs to develop sustainable economic activity in the buffer region surrounding the park, such as sustainable agroforestry crops and their value chains, ecotourism and craft production. Under the agreement, more than 15 Mt of CO2 will be avoided over ten years.
Republic of the Congo
In March 2021, TotalEnergies and the Forêt Ressources Management group signed a partnership agreement with the Republic of the Congo for a large-scale, inclusive agroforestry management project that will sequester more than 10 Mt of CO2.
The integrated management with the partners of more than 50,000 hectares over a 35-year period provides for the planting of a 38,000-hectare forest, 2,000 hectares of agroforestry projects and preservation of gallery forests. The project aims to develop sustainable agricultural and wood energy production in cooperation with the local population.