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TotalEnergies SE is facing “unfair” charges of greenwashing and “radical positions amplified by social networks,” said Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanné in a Sunday interview.

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In 2023, the French energy firm will invest €5 billion ($5.5 billion) in renewable and low-carbon energies, making it the oil major “most involved in this strategic challenge,” according to Le Journal du Dimanche.

Activists attempted to prevent the corporation from holding its annual shareholder meeting in May, where 17 institutional investors filed a resolution urging the group to vote for more aggressive emissions objectives.

“Let’s not forget that demand for hydrocarbons continues to grow worldwide,” Pouyanné said when asked about the group’s aim of maintaining oil and gas as the primary source of revenue by 2030. TotalEnergies’ ambitions also include establishing EV-only service stations in Paris and other French cities, according to him.

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Pouyanné, 59, said he’s willing to extend his time as CEO for another year if the board wants him to stay and shareholders agree. He was appointed after Christophe De Margerie died in an aircraft tragedy in 2014.

Uganda Project

Pouyanné claimed that TotalEnergies miscalculated the issue surrounding a Ugandan oil project that French banks refused to fund, leaving the field mostly to “Middle Eastern and Chinese banks.” “I don’t think we realized that this project would become a symbol of the anti-oil fight,” he remarked.

Ugandan activists and Western environmental groups fear that the project, which entails digging hundreds of oil wells in and near nature reserves, will devastate ecosystems and increase emissions at a time when the world should be transitioning away from fossil fuels.

“We were slow to react, and we underestimated its impact,” Pouyanné admitted.

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