Table of contents:
- Environmental challenges
- General policy and environmental targets
- Preventing risks of accidental pollution
- Limiting the environmental footprint of the Company activities
- Managing damage to biodiversity and ecosystems during projects and operations
- Promoting the circular economy
- Environmental and social impact assessments
Environmental challenges
The reporting initiatives and frameworks that are being set up, such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), consider nature as whole, through a combination of four realms: land, oceans, freshwater and the atmosphere.
For a company like TotalEnergies, caring for the environment in our activities includes all these realms.
Learn more on our Company’s environmental challenges
General policy and environmental targets
Our ambition is based on four pillars: respecting our voluntary exclusion zones, preserving biodiversity in our projects and on our existing sites important for the environment, and promoting biodiversity. It is based on the Act4Nature International commitments we have made since 2018.
Our approach is to reconcile the development of energy resources with the protection of biodiversity to build a sustainable future. We apply the Mitigation Hierarchy approach of Avoidance, Reduction/Restoration and Compensation to all our operations and projects. In concrete terms, we implement environmental impact assessments for all our projects, including for renewable energy projects, in all countries where we operate.
Learn more on general policy and environmental targets
Preventing risks of accidental pollution
To prevent accidental risks and, in particular, major spills that could reach the environment, TotalEnergies implements appropriate risk management policies
| Oil spill preparedness | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Number of sites whose risk analysis identified at least one risk of major accidental pollution to surface water |
113 |
119 |
119 |
|
Proportion of those sites with an operational oil spill contingency plan |
100% |
100% |
100% |
|
Proportion of those sites that have performed an oil spill response exercise or whose exercise was prevented following a decision by the authorities |
92% |
97% |
88% |
| Accidental liquid hydrocarbon spills of a volume of more than one barrel that affected the environment, excluding sabotage | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Number of spills |
49 |
65 |
50 |
|
Total volume of spills (thousands of m³) |
0.1 |
2.0 |
1.0 |
|
Total volume recovered (thousands of m³) |
0.1 |
1.7 |
– |
Learn more on preventing risks of accidental pollution
Limiting the environmental footprint of the Company activities
TotalEnergies implements a policy of avoiding, reducing and, where necessary, offsetting the footprint of its operations on the environment and on nature by setting up measures to protect environments (air, water, soil) and sustainability using resources (water, soil).
| Atmospheric chronic emissions | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
SO2 emissions (in kt) |
13 |
16 |
34 |
|
NOX emissions (in kt) |
60 |
59 |
64 |
|
NMVOC emissions(a)(in kt) |
48 |
58 |
69 |
|
(a) Non-methane volatile organic compounds. |
|||
| Discharged water quality | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Hydrocarbon content of offshore continuous water discharges (in mg/l) |
12.9 |
13.7 |
12.8 |
|
% of sites that meet the target for the quality of offshore discharges (30 mg/l) |
93% |
92% |
100%(a) |
|
Hydrocarbon content of onshore continuous water discharges (in mg/l) |
1.8 |
2.6 |
1.9 |
|
% of sites that meet the target for the quality of onshore discharges of:
|
100% |
100% |
100% |
|
(a) Alwynn and Gryphon sites (United Kingdom) excluded, as their produced water discharges only occur during the maintenance periods of the water reinjection system and are subject to a specific regulatory declaration. |
|||
| Water-related indicator (Mcm) | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Fresh water withdrawals excluding open loop cooling water |
107 |
101 |
105 |
|
Fresh water consumption |
80 |
75 |
75 |
|
Fresh water withdrawal in water stress area(1) |
55 |
54 |
52 |
|
(1) World Resources Institute. The indicators in this paragraph are evaluated from the Projected Basic Water Stress 2030 |
|||
Learn more on limiting the environmental footprint of the Company activities
Learn more about the CEO Water Mandate
Consult TotalEnergies’ response to the CDP Water Security questionnaire
Managing damage to biodiversity and ecosystems during projects and operations
In 2016, the Company pledged to contribute to the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including those relating to biodiversity. Since 2018, TotalEnergies has been a signatory to the Act4Nature initiative promoted by the French Association of Enterprises for the Environment, now act4nature international alliance.
In 2020, TotalEnergies set itself a new global biodiversity ambition to coincide with the preparation of the United Nations’ global biodiversity plan, and updated its public commitments in this field. This ambition has been incorporated into the Company’s One MAESTRO framework.
Learn more on managing damage to biodiversity and ecosystems during projects and operations
Promoting the circular economy
We are actors of the circular economy through our production of biofuels, biogas and circular polymers. For biofuels, we have set an objective of increasing the share of circular feedstock (used cooking oil and animal fat) from 50% to more than 75% as from 2024. Biogas production relies primarily on agricultural waste.
At our sites, promoting circular management of resources starts with responsible management of our waste.
Learn more on promoting the circular economy
TotalEnergies, founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste
In March 2022, we joined the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE)
Environmental and social impact assessments
When a new industrial site is developed, a baseline study must be conducted. This is supplemented by environmental and social impact assessments that measure and analyze actual and potential impact, positive and negative, direct, indirect or cumulative, in the short, medium and long term of the project.
Those studies are generally part of a public process involving stakeholder consultation.
The Company’s significant projects are listed below by country (alphabetical order):
Guyana
- Impact assessment of the drilling project of the Guyane Maritime permit (In french only) (March 2018)
Ivory Coast
- Environmental and social impact assessment for Exploration drilling wells on offshore blocks CI-705 and CI-706 (2021): Ivory Coast official News Paper – Ministerial Order 6th July 2021
Lebanon
- Environmental and social impact assessment on Bloc 4 (July 2019)
Mozambique
- Environmental impact assessment of the Mozambique LNG project
Myanmar
- Initial environmental assessment on the 3D seismic project on Bloc YWB (October 2017)
Namibia
- Seismic proposal on Blocks 2912 and 2913B (June 2020)
- Environmental and social impact assessment of exploration and appraisal of the block 2912 (2022): https://www.slrconsulting.com/en/public-documents/teepna-2912
Ouganda
- Environmental and social impact assessment of the Tilenga project (February 2019)
- Environmental and social impact assessment of the EACOP project (January 2019)
Papoua New-Guinea
- Human Rights impact assessment (202) on PRL15: https://www.humanrights.dk/sites/humanrights.dk/files/media/document/~%2019_02922-15%20papua_lng_hria_summary_report_final_feb2019%20-%20fd%20461989_1_1.PDF
Sao Tome
- Environmental and social impact assessment of Block 1 (in Portuguese)
South Africa
- Environmental and social impact assessment Exploration drilling for block 567 (2022): https://www.slrconsulting.com/en/public-documents/TEEPSA-567
- Environmental and social impact assessment Exploration drilling for block DWOB (2022): https://www.slrconsulting.com/en/public-documents/TEEPSA-DWOB
- Environmental and social impact assessment Exploration drilling for block 11B12B (2022): https://www.wsp.com/-/media/service/south-africa/2022-documents/proposed-offshore-production-right-and-environmental-autorisation-applications-for-block-11b-12b/1-221128teepsablock11b12bdraftscopingreportfinalprint28nov22.pdf
Tanzania
- Environmental and social impact assessment of the EACOP project (August 2019)
United States
- Environmental impact assessments of the South Platte project are available on the BSEE website (Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement) – reference G36155
