TotalEnergies Ramps Up Carbon Credit Buying Ahead of 2030 Target

TotalEnergies spent $28 million on carbon credits in the first quarter of 2026—the largest first-quarter outlay the French energy major has recorded since it began purchasing credits in 2021, according to its Q1 earnings report.

A family from Rwanda preparing a meal on a clean cookstove while their family is playing football nearby, set against a vibrant green landscape symbolizing the impact of sustainable carbon reduction projects. AI generated picture.

To put the scale of the increase in context: the company spent just $2 million on carbon credits in Q1 2025. Its first-quarter spend this year already surpasses everything it spent across January through September of last year combined.

The Q1 figure trails the $49 million TotalEnergies deployed in Q4 2025, which remains its highest quarterly spend on record—and Q4 is typically the period of heaviest annual purchasing. For the full year 2025, the company spent $73 million on carbon credits, a 33% rise on 2024 and a record annual total at the time.

A portfolio target driving the pace

The buying momentum is tied to a specific corporate goal. TotalEnergies is targeting a carbon credit portfolio of 50 million tCO₂e by 2030. At the close of 2025, it held 17.9 million tCO₂e—meaning it needs to acquire a further 32.1 million tCO₂e over the next four years, or roughly 8 million tCO₂e annually.

From 2030, the company intends to retire credits at five million tCO₂e per year to cover residual direct emissions (Scope 1) and those linked to electricity consumption (Scope 2).

Supply agreements are part of how TotalEnergies is building that stockpile. In late 2025, it secured a deal for energy-efficient cookstoves projects in Rwanda, giving it rights to more than 2.5 million tCO₂e over a ten-year period. The credits from those projects are expected to be eligible under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, the international framework that governs the transfer of carbon units between countries.