On the podium, Yamina Saheb took the microphone. At the end of May 2023, the co-author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was taking part in a round table organized by the prestigious HEC Paris business school, on its campus in Jouy-en-Josas, in northern France. The theme of this "Climate Day" was energy transition. Sitting opposite her was Carole Le Gall, TotalEnergies vice president in charge of sustainable development and climate.

Saheb attacked her. "On the one hand, science says we have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and that it's the only way to keep the planet livable. On the other, one of the world's leading fossil fuel companies says it will continue to develop fossil fuels." This is "a major contradiction," said Saheb, who is also a researcher at the French Observatory of Economic Conditions. "We have to put an end to the fossil era [coal, oil, gas], otherwise there will be no life left on this planet." There was applause from part of the audience.

The indictment was harsh. It didn't come from an environmental NGO but from a recognized expert. This scene illustrates the extent to which TotalEnergies is a focal point for tensions and how the company occupies a special place in the French landscape, at the crossroads of multiple debates running through society. "Why so much hatred?" asked the business daily's magazine Les Echos in a March issue.

The private company, founded in 1924 at the initiative of the state, is now one of the world's leading oil majors. In a country whose own oil production is close to nil, this success was by no means a foregone conclusion.

The company has more than 100,000 employees; a presence in some 120 countries; megaprofits (€19.8 billion in 2023, its record); more than 3,300 service stations in France and 14,500 worldwide; and a place as the world's leading developer of solar projects and the leading investor in renewable energies in France, as well as a CEO decorated with the Legion of Honor. The government still sees the firm as "an asset" for France's influence – in the words of Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. And the CVs of motivated engineers continue to pour in at the headquarters in La Défense, west of Paris.

But, like the other major oil companies, TotalEnergies is also increasingly challenged by a growing front. It is accused of undermining the energy transition and enriching itself at the expense of climate change, suspected of human rights violations and weighed down by a history of corruption and environmental scandals. "Of course, it's more complicated to run a multinational oil company than a multinational bakery," said one of its former heads, who prefers to keep a low profile.

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