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Investors ask TotalEnergies to split CEO, board chair roles ahead of May AGM

A group of investors in French oil major TotalEnergies is requiring the company to split the functions of CEO and chairman, which they state could speed up its shift away from fossil fuels.

The separation of functions might improve discussion with the board ... on environment transition concerns and guarantee a much better balance of power at a time when lots of financiers are of the opinion that TotalEnergies' shift method is not ambitious enough, states the resolution to be proposed at the company's. annual general conference on May 24.

The proposal was put forward by 19 worldwide investors. holding roughly 20 million TotalEnergies shares, together with. Swiss pension fund financier group Ethos Foundation and the. French Sustainable Investment Forum (FIR).

The move challenges the supremacy of Patrick Pouyanne, who. has actually held the function of CEO and chairman at the world's. fifth-largest listed oil business for nearly a decade,. spearheading a technique of growing oil and gas output while likewise. increasing renewables.

Pouyanne is up for another three-year mandate at the AGM.

In France the governance of the company is by law a. competence of the Board ... and the Board is most likely not to. think about as receivable such a resolution, stated a TotalEnergies. representative.

Climate-focused financiers have increased pressure on the. world's leading oil and gas business in the last few years to cut carbon. emissions and move far from fossil fuels production.

TotalEnergies does not picture a significant decrease in. emissions from its products by 2030.

At its AGM last year, 30% of TotalEnergies financiers voted. in favour of faster emissions cuts versus the company's. suggestion.

We truly get the feeling that those financiers weren't. heard by the board, said Principles Structure CEO Vincent Kaufmann.

There was a concern about whether to vote against. Pouyanne's renewal, however we wanted it to be positive, not a. frontal attack, so this is a consultative survey about what the. best governance design ought to be, Kaufmann included.

Fourteen business listed on France's CAC 40 index have. divided the functions of chairman and CEO because 2016, while 12 still. have a single CEO/chairman.

A board chair has the power to set the program and filter. financier requests, says the resolution, adding that in 2022 the. Pouyanne-led board declined to send a climate-change associated. resolution to a vote on a technicality that was much discussed.

Under TotalEnergies' guidelines, the lead independent director,. who is implied to identify conflicts of interest and to be a. counterweight to Pouyanne's dual position, can be dismissed by a. vote from the board at any time.

Jacques Aschenbroich, TotalEnergies' lead independent. director, last month protected Pouyanne's double management function as. the most appropriate for dealing with the difficulties and. specificities of the energy sector due to the fact that of the unity of. command it provides Pouyanne in settlements with nations and. other business.