Parnell, John. Green Tech Media. (2021, January 18). Total Buys Stake in Adani Green Energy, World’s Biggest Solar Developer. Retrieved February 13, 2020, from https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/total-buys-stake-in-adani-green-energy-the-worlds-biggest-solar-developer

Adani Green Energy is an Indian solar company that Total, a multinational oil and gas company located in France, acquired a 50% stake of. AGEL has added 3 gigawatts of operating renewable capacity and is developing 11.6 gigawatts currently, hoping to reach 25 gigawatts by 2025. Total acquired this stake to support the creation of a vehicle using AGEL’s solar technology. AGEL’s chairman Gautam Adani stated that he looks forward to working with Total in their shared vision of reaching 450 GW of renewable energy in India by 2030. As a company, Total has supported and developed projects globally to support renewable energy including solar and wind, including in Qatar, Spain, in France itself, in the US, and in South Korea. All of these projects together add up to 16.8 GW of renewable energy. Other oil companies are also creating renewable targets to support these projects internationally. BP Global is aiming for 20 GW by 2025 and Shell hopes to decrease current oil and gas drilling projects by 40-50 percent by 2025 and supports 1 GW worth of renewable energy projects.

I find myself being cautiously optimistic about this news. While it is important that major oil companies are starting to work with and support renewable energy projects, it is hard to shake the feeling that there may be some ulterior motive behind Total investing in AGEL. Furthermore, AGEL is apparently owned by the Adani Group, a company that also owns an oil and gas company. If Total and the Avani Group wanted to truly be renewable, they likely have the money and resources to do so, and yet they mainly still extract and sell oil and gas. Nonetheless, this development will still bring about positive change for Indians and the planet in general. By combining the resources of both already established companies, the two countries can hopefully make a dent in lowering transportation pollution in India, a country that is a major carbon emitter. Even if both companies have questionable histories, their attempts are honorable and may soon be one of many examples of oil, coal, and gas companies using their resources to support renewable projects. As the project continues to be developed, I think that Indians should be wary about what this means and not immediately support it. Both companies have very strong ties with nonrenewable energy companies and may attempt to secretly use fossil fuels while manufacturing the cars.