A hundred European elected officials asked the European Commission on Tuesday to ban EU energy groups from launching new fossil projects in the face of “climate peril”, in a letter consulted by AFP.
The European Union must move up a gear by legally forcing multinational fossil fuel companies and financial players to abandon any new project in coal, oil and gas, ask the signatories, including MEPs, French elected representatives and several mayors .
They ask the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen to urgently propose European legislation which prevents any new exploitation of fossil fuels by European groups such as TotalEnergies or Shell.
The initiative was launched by MEPs Raphal Glucksmann (S&D group) and Karima Delli (EELV) as well as the Mayor of Charleroi, Paul Magnette. The letter is signed in particular by Yannick Jadot (EELV), Olivier Faure (PS), Delphine Batho (EELV) or the mayors of Strasbourg, Jeanne Barseghian (PS) and Grenoble Eric Piolle (EELV).
MEPs are also demanding legislation that prevents the European financial sector from providing financial services to this type of project and to companies that would not quickly give up developing this type of climate-killing project.
We also ask Ursula von der Leyen to publicly defend the idea of a treaty of non-proliferation of fossil fuels, detail the elected officials.
Now is the time to act, before it is definitely too late, add the 100 signatories of the letter, which will be presented on Tuesday afternoon at an event in Brussels called stop superprofits on the back of the plant.
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The appeal comes as five renowned environmental defenders who have urged TotalEnergies and its financial backers to cease their climate-killing projects in South Africa, regretted on Tuesday the lack of positive responses from the banks questioned.
The French multinational is due to present its annual financial results on Wednesday, after reporting a new record profit of 6.6 billion dollars in the third quarter, thanks mainly to the surge in gas prices since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. .
The British energy giant Shell recorded in 2022 the highest profit in its history, 42.3 billion dollars.