French multinational energy group TotalEnergies was committed to the energy transition and has a strategy for this, highlighted the group’s MD and CEO marketing and services and country chair and executive VP: Southern Africa Mariam Kane-Garcia on Tuesday. She was addressing a session of the African Refiners and Distributors Association 2024 conference, in Cape Town.

The TotalEnergies transition strategy had two pillars, she pointed out. The first was ‘more energy, less emissions’, with fossil fuels. “We are not giving away our core business, which is oil and gas,” she noted. The second was the development of its low-carbon ‘Integrated Power’ business, which involved the deployment of renewable energy.

“We can’t change overnight,” she observed. “No one can.” But the aim was for the group to provide sustainable energy, display responsible environmental stewardship, follow legislation and regulations but also do what was good. In short, make the company a positive stakeholder business.

She stressed that TotalEnergies – which was 100 years old, this year – was an energy business and that that was an enormous responsibility, as energy provided the basis for nearly everything else. And she assured that the group was going to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, without leaving anyone behind. “We have to go, progressively,” she explained.

An example of the company’s approach, in Africa, was its programme to promote the use of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) as a cooking fuel. Because it would replace the currently-used charcoal, using LPG would greatly reduce the carbon emissions produced by domestic cooking across much of the continent. Although LPG was also a fossil fuel, it had just about the lowest carbon emissions of any fossil fuel. Total Energies was investing $400-million over the coming years to develop its LPG production and distribution network in Africa.

In addition to implementing clean cooking across Africa, the widespread adoption of LPG would also benefit the continent’s women. Usually, across Africa, it was the women who had to engage in the time-consuming and tiring collection of charcoal, as well as do the cooking itself.

Kane-Garcia affirmed that the group sought to create shared value in its host countries, and reduce the impact of energy on the environment. In South Africa, it was supplying solar energy to its customers. Indeed, it was supplying solar energy to itself – its regional head office in Johannesburg had solar panels on its roof. Further, Total Energies had been supporting South Africa’s National Parks for 65 years. And, in South Africa, it was a Level 1-rated company in terms of broad-based black economic empowerment.

“We have zero tolerance on corruption and fraud,” she stated.