“Half a century. Total has known about climate change, its causes and consequences, for at least fifty years. But the oil majors have long denied these warnings and cast doubt on the state of scientific knowledge in order to extract ever more fossil fuels. These are the findings of a study by researchers in the social sciences and humanities on the positioning adopted by Total – and by Elf, absorbed by Total in 1999 – with regard to its contribution to climate change over the last five decades.”
