Around 30 activists from 350.org, Action Justice Climat, Attac, Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion unfurled a banner reading ‘TotalEnergies profits, we pay the bill’ near a service station belonging to the multinational in northeastern Paris, as the TotalEnergies group published its profits for the first quarter of 2026 this morning, amounting to 5.8 billion, twice as much as a year ago.
Just one month after learning that TotalEnergies had knowingly speculated on the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to pocket at least $1 billion in profits in March, the message to the French government from the organizations behind this action is clear: it’s time to stop protecting the interests of a powerful few and to have the political courage to implement a tax on the profits of fossil fuel giants, the revenue from which could significantly improve the lives of French people in the short and medium term. Photos and videos of the mobilisation are available here.
This action comes at the time of the publication of TotalEnergies’ financial results for the first quarter of 2026, which once again this year escapes the exceptional tax on large companies put in place in the 2026 budget.
Fanny Petitbon, France manager for 350.org, stated:
“Sixty days of war in Iran, and already €2 billion in additional costs absorbed by households and businesses in France due to soaring energy prices. Meanwhile, TotalEnergies proudly and unscrupulously reports profits twice as high as last year at the same time, without even paying its fair share of taxes. We denounce this obscene transfer of wealth: war enriches shareholders and impoverishes citizens. This dependence is a political choice, but the antidote exists. The government must stop being complacent and permanently tax the profits and super-profits of fossil fuel giants in order to alleviate the economic burden borne by a large majority of French people and invest massively in renewables.”
Youlie Yamamoto, spokesperson for Attac, stated:
“The price cap of €1.99 per liter, presented by Total as a “gesture,” is a cynical PR stunt, given the record profits made by the multinational by speculating on the war and rising prices, while the population bears the brunt of soaring fuel costs at the pump. It is all the more scandalous that these oil super-profits are relocated to tax havens. A unitary taxation mechanism must be implemented to tax them where the activity takes place.”
Nour Bounaidja, coordinator of Action Justice Climat, stated:
“TotalEnergies grows richer every day while the French people grow poorer in the face of ever-increasing energy bills. More than ever, we must fight against companies with violent methods, against carbon fascism, and for human rights. As a citizens’ movement, we demand that the French government take responsibility and tax TotalEnergies’ profits, which amount to billions of euros, while public services are suffering a budget cut of 6 billion euros, essential for maintaining the health and education systems. Here in France, and in the countries of the global majority, companies from the Global North are proliferating in a neo-colonial dynamic and contributing to ecocide and genocide.”
Sarah Roussel, Climate and Fossil Fuels Campaign Manager for Greenpeace France, stated:
“TotalEnergies announced this morning that it amassed €5.8 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2026, 51% more than in the first quarter of 2025. Behind these results lie indecent and destructive war profits, largely captured by shareholders, while millions of people see their energy bills skyrocket. It is urgent that the French government tax the profits of oil companies to reduce the energy bills of lower-income households and accelerate investments in energy efficiency and safe, affordable, and locally sourced renewable energy.”
Mat, an Extinction Rebellion activist, stated:
“Total’s obscene profits are made by betting on war and at the expense of everyone: the populations and ecosystems of countries whose resources are plundered, people who need their cars to get to work and are bleeding themselves dry at the pump, and the working conditions of Total employees, who went on strike two weeks ago to lower the price of diesel. And the government watches without doing anything, or worse: encourages it.”
As the first international conference on the transition away from fossil fuels concludes today in Santa Marta, Colombia, the issue of taxing the profits of major polluters is at the forefront of current events, particularly for financing a sustainable exit from dependence on oil, gas, and coal.
While the European Union unfortunately did not include this measure in its package of responses to the crisis adopted last week, France has several opportunities to advance this issue, including the examination in early June by the National Assembly of a bill on the windfall profits of oil and gas companies and the upcoming round of negotiations in August in New York aimed at adopting a United Nations Convention for International Fiscal Cooperation.
We demand that France stop giving in to the oil lobby and immediately establish a permanent and ambitious tax on fossil fuel profits. Every day of inaction is a deliberate political choice in favour of shareholders at the expense of citizens.
The issue of taxing the profits of fossil fuel companies has gained popularity in recent months:
- According to a survey published this week by Oxfam France, 75% of the French population believe that companies in the fossil fuel sector should be taxed more heavily.
- The finance ministers of Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy and Portugal called on the European Commission in early April to introduce a new EU-wide tax on windfall profits of energy companies, arguing that soaring oil prices linked to geopolitical tensions are unfairly impacting citizens.
- A group of renowned international economists, including Joseph Stiglitz, have called for the introduction of taxes on the super-profits pocketed by oil, gas and chemical fertiliser companies.
- Laurence Tubiana , Executive Director of the European Climate Foundation, and former chief negotiator for France at COP21, argues that taxes on fossil fuel super-profits should be a gateway to more permanent forms of taxation.
- 350.org recently published two statistical analyses:
- One published on April 21, 2026, demonstrating that the hidden cost of fossil fuels amounts to $12 trillion per year worldwide, including public subsidies allocated to fossil fuel companies, health impacts, and costs related to climate disasters.
- The other estimate, dated April 29, 2026, cited earlier in this press release, calculates losses related to price spikes using weighted averages of oil and gas prices since the start of the war in Iran, combined with national consumption levels and taking into account the uncertainty of certain data, such as decreased demand and rationing in response to rising prices. It does not include broader spillover effects, such as increased fertiliser and food costs, decreased economic output and employment, or widespread inflation.
