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For Immediate Release
October, 27 2022, 08:15am EDT
Contact:
Christine Mbithi
Email: christine.mbithi@350.org
350.org reacts: Total rakes in obscene profits at the expense of people and planet
On Thursday, oil giant Total announced staggering third quarter profits of $9.9 billion to shareholders.
AFRICA
On Thursday, oil giant Total announced staggering third quarter profits of $9.9 billion to shareholders.
The oil and gas giant is responsible for some of the most destructive fossil fuel projects on the planet, including the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline and fracking across Vaca Muerta, Argentina. This announcement shines a spotlight on the moral bankruptcy and danger posed by oil majors - these corporations are ruthlessly profiteering off war in Ukraine when tens of millions of people are suffering from the combined impacts of the climate crisis, soaring fossil fuel costs and a cost of living scandal.
Despite the International Energy Agency demanding an end to new fossil fuel investments, Total continues to rake in obscene profits at the expense of people and the planet, more so in Africa. Total is currently leading a dash for gas in Africa, securing billion dollar deals in Algeria and South Africa to extract and burn more fossil fuels from the continent, while the European Parliament recently adopted a groundbreaking resolution that recognises the disastrous consequences for both human rights and the climate due to the construction of Total's East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project.
It is vital that we stop the flow of money to reckless fossil fuel companies like Total.
Omar Elmawi, Coordinator of Stop EACOP:
"Fossil fuel companies such as Total continue to operate with impunity, risking the well being of communities, posing a threat to sensitive ecosystems and negatively impacting the climate, all this while making huge profits. While Total's mega oil project, the proposed East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) and associated oil fields face sustained resistance locally and globally, the oil and gas major insists on forging ahead with the project. We can stop the fossil fuel industry by hitting it where it hurts - cutting off financing to their harmful projects. It's time for banks and reinsurers to pull the plug on EACOP by committing to not funding or insuring the project, for the sake of people, nature and climate."
Clemence Dubois, Lead France campaigner at 350.org:
"Today, Total is adding more fuel to the fire by celebrating another round of shameful profits : the refiners' month-long ongoing strike in France demanding a fair pay rise spotlights the present socio-economic model, a model that exhausts people and planet. The intensifying climate impacts we all experience and the rise of poverty across our communities due to soaring fossil fuel prices is no accident, it is the manifestation of the unlimited greed of Total and the fossil fuel industry. Our politicians and decision-makers must not allow the fossil fuel industry to dictate the economic and political agenda for the sake of greed. It is time for accountability and justice. Total knew, Total lied, and Total, like its peers in the oil industry, must pay and be held accountable."
350 is building a future that's just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis. We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
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More than 200 Catholic bishops joined in condemning the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants in an extraordinary statement on Wednesday.
The "special message" was issued at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) annual fall plenary, at which a majority of the nation's bishops were in attendance. They denounced the administration's "indiscriminate mass deportation" campaign, and called for an end to "dehumanizing rhetoric and violence."
Such a message is exceptionally rare. It was the first time in 12 years that the USCCB has issued such a joint statement, which it says is reserved for cases it deems "particularly urgent."
The statement was passed with 216 votes of approval, while just five bishops voted against it and three abstained. There are around 270 actively serving bishops in the US, meaning the vote represents the vast majority opinion among these high-ranking church officials. After the vote passed, the declaration was met with sustained applause.
The bishops laid out a litany of ways the Trump administration has violated the rights of immigrants over the past year and engaged in dehumanizing rhetoric directed at them.
"We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement," the bishops said. "We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care. We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status. We are troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools. We are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school, and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones."
The White House often claims that the immigrants it targets for deportation are violent criminals and terrorists. But the latest immigration data shows that around 72% of current detainees have no criminal convictions. Previous data from the libertarian Cato Institute has shown that 93% of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) book-ins were for non-criminals and nonviolent offenders.
Members of the Trump administration often engage in openly hostile rhetoric toward immigrants, including Vice President JD Vance, whose wife's parents immigrated from India, and who is a recent Catholic convert who often speaks about the role of faith in his politics.
Vance has described immigration to the US as a “historic invasion” of the nation. He has admitted to spreading false rumors about Haitian asylum seekers, who’d fled violence and instability in their home countries to settle legally in the US; during the 2024 presidential campaign, he amplified baseless claims that the migrants were eating the pets of their American neighbors. Vance has derided the idea of people from "different cultures" moving to the US, saying it's "totally reasonable and acceptable for American citizens to look at their next-door neighbors and say, 'I want to live next to people who I have something in common with,'" including speaking the same language.
The bishops thoroughly repudiated this worldview in their statement.
"Despite obstacles and prejudices, generations of immigrants have made enormous contributions to the well-being of our nation. We, as Catholic bishops, love our country and pray for its peace and prosperity. For this very reason, we feel compelled now in this environment to raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity," they said. "Catholic teaching exhorts nations to recognize the fundamental dignity of all persons, including immigrants."
The bishops called for “meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws and procedures,” adding that “human dignity and national security are not in conflict” and that “both are possible if people of goodwill work together.”
"We recognize that nations have a responsibility to regulate their borders and establish a just and orderly immigration system for the sake of the common good," they said. "Without such processes, immigrants face the risk of trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Safe and legal pathways serve as an antidote to such risks."
The bishops' statement follows a call by Pope Leo XIV last week for "deep reflection" about the way immigrants are treated in the United States. The Chicago-born Pope, the first American to ever serve as the church's patriarch, said that "many people who have lived for years and years and years, never causing problems, have been deeply affected by what is going on right now.”
According to the American Immigration Council, more than 80% of the undocumented immigrants in the US in 2022 had been living in the country for over a decade. Meanwhile, numerous studies have found that both undocumented and documented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens.
The bishops’ denunciation comes at a time when Americans have turned considerably against Trump’s immigration policies: Where he had double-digit approval on the issue near the start of his presidency, at the beginning of November, net support for his immigration policy was at -7 according to polls from The Economist/YouGov.
As Christopher Hale, a writer who has chronicled Leo's papacy, wrote, the bishops' statement may be the strongest collective denunciation of a US president ever made by the Catholic hierarchy.
"Not since the civil rights era—and never with such unanimity—have American bishops so directly challenged a president’s policies," Hale said.
Also at the plenary, El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz, the chair of the USCCB's migration committee, announced the launch of the conference's "You Are Not Alone" Initiative, which aims to provide support and accompaniment to migrants at risk of deportation under the Trump administration.
"Our immigrant brothers and sisters… are living in a deep state of fear,” Seitz said. “Many are too afraid to work, send their children to school, or avail themselves to the sacraments.”
He added: "Because we’re pastors… we care about our people, and we care particularly for those who are most vulnerable and those who are most in need.”
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A environmental advocacy group is warning about the potential "corporate capture" of the COP30 climate summit being held this week in Belém, Brazil.
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In total, KBPO counted 1,602 fossil fuel lobbyists at the climate summit.
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The KBPO report puts this into perspective by contrasting the number of lobbyists in attendance with the number of delegates from nations that have suffered the most from extreme weather brought about by human-induced climate change.
"Fossil fuel lobbyists outnumber official delegates from the Philippines by nearly 50 to 1—even while the country is being hit by devastating typhoons as the UN climate talks are underway," the report notes. "Fossil fuel lobbyists sent more than 40 times the number of people than Jamaica, which is still reeling from Hurricane Melissa."
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