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The Exxon Mobil climate change controversy surrounds evidence that ExxonMobil supported actions for the purpose of delaying widespread acceptance and action on climate change.

After the 1980s, Exxon was a leader in climate change denial, opposing regulations to curtail global warming. In 2014, ExxonMobil publicly acknowledged climate change risk. It nominally supports a carbon tax, though that support is weak.

ExxonMobil has drawn criticism from scientists, science organizations and the environmental lobby for funding organizations critical of the Kyoto Protocol and seeking to undermine public opinion about the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. It helped to found and lead the Global Climate Coalition. The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report in 2007 accusing ExxonMobil of spending $16 million, between 1998 and 2005, towards 43 advocacy organizations which dispute the impact of global warming. The report argued that ExxonMobil used disinformation tactics similar to those used by the tobacco industry in its denials of the link between lung cancer and smoking, saying that the company used "many of the same organizations and personnel to cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue."

History

Exxon's attitude towards climate change has varied over the decades. From the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Exxon funded internal and university collaborations, broadly in line with the developing public scientific approach. Toward the end of the 1980s, Exxon curtailed its own climate research and was a leader in climate change denial.; helping to found and lead the Global Climate Coalition. Lee Raymond, Exxon and ExxonMobil chief executive officer from 1993 to 2006, was one of the most outspoken executives in the United States against regulation to curtail global warming. Beginning in 2002, ExxonMobil has invested up to US$100m over a ten-year period to establish the Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford University, which "would focus on technologies that could provide energy without adding to a buildup of greenhouse gases". Under Rex Tillerson's CEOship, Exxon has softened its line. In 2007 vice president for public affairs Kenneth Cohen said "we know enough now—or, society knows enough now—that the risk is serious and action should be taken". Cohen stated that, as of 2006, ExxonMobil had ceased funding of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and "'five or six' similar groups". Exxon now nominally supports a carbon tax, though that support is weak.

In July 1977, at a meeting of Exxon's Management Committee in Exxon corporate headquarters, a senior company scientist warned company executives of the danger of atmospheric carbon dioxide increases from the burning of fossil fuels. In 1992, the senior ice researcher, leading a Calgary-based research team in Exxon’s Canadian subsidiary Imperial Oil, assessed how global warming could affect Exxon’s Arctic operations, and reported that exploration and development costs in the Beaufort Sea might be lower, while higher sea levels and rougher seas could threaten the company’s coastal and offshore infrastructure.

ExxonMobil has drawn criticism from scientists, science organizations and the environmental lobby for funding organizations critical of the Kyoto Protocol and seeking to undermine public opinion about the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. According to Mother Jones Magazine, the company channeled at least $8,678,450 between the years 2000-2003 to forty different organizations that have employed disinformation campaigns including "skeptic propaganda masquerading as journalism" to influence opinion of the public and of political leaders about global warming. According to The Guardian, ExxonMobil has funded, among other groups, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, George C. Marshall Institute, Heartland Institute, Congress on Racial Equality, TechCentralStation.com, and International Policy Network. ExxonMobil's support for these organizations has drawn criticism from the Royal Society, the academy of sciences of the United Kingdom. A survey carried out by the UK's Royal Society found that in 2005 ExxonMobil distributed $2.9m to 39 groups that the society said "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence". The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report in 2007 accusing ExxonMobil of spending $16 million, between 1998 and 2005, towards 43 advocacy organizations which dispute the impact of global warming. The report argued that ExxonMobil used disinformation tactics similar to those used by the tobacco industry in its denials of the link between lung cancer and smoking, saying that the company used "many of the same organizations and personnel to cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue".

Beginning in 2004, the descendants of John D. Rockefeller, led mainly by his great-grandchildren, through letters, meetings, and shareholder resolutions, attempted but failed to get ExxonMobil to acknowledge climate change, to abandon climate denial, and to shift towards clean energy.

In January 2007, the company appeared to change its position, when vice president for public affairs Kenneth Cohen said "we know enough now—or, society knows enough now—that the risk is serious and action should be taken". Cohen stated that, as of 2006, ExxonMobil had ceased funding of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and "'five or six' similar groups". While the company did not publicly state which the other similar groups were, a May 2007 report by Greenpeace does list the five groups "at the heart of the climate change denial industry" it stopped funding as well as a list of 41 similar groups which are still receiving ExxonMobil funds.

On February 13, 2007, ExxonMobil CEO Rex W. Tillerson acknowledged that the planet was warming while carbon dioxide levels were increasing, "but in the same speech gave an unalloyed defense of the oil industry and predicted that hydrocarbons would dominate the world’s transportation as energy demand grows by an expected 40 percent by 2030. stated that there is no significant alternative to oil in coming decades, and that ExxonMobil would continue to make petroleum and natural gas its primary products", saying: "I'm no expert on biofuels. I don't know much about farming and I don't know much about moonshine. ... There is really nothing ExxonMobil can bring to that whole biofuels issue. We don't see a direct role for ourselves with today's technology." However, recently ExxonMobil has announced that it will plan on spending up to 600 million dollars within the next 10 years to fund biofuels that come from algae. On July 14, 2010 ExxonMobil announced that, a year after teaming with Synthetic Genomics, Inc., they had opened a greenhouse to research algae as a possible biofuel.

In May 2008, a week before their annual shareholder's meeting, ExxonMobil pledged in its annual corporate citizenship report that it would cut funding to "several public policy research groups whose position on climate change could divert attention" from the need to address climate change. On July 1, 2009, The Guardian newspaper revealed that ExxonMobil continued to fund such organizations, including the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) and the Heritage Foundation. A December 2009 article in Mother Jones magazine included ExxonMobil as a promulgator of climate disinformation. Between 2007 and 2015, ExxonMobil gave $1.87 million to Congressional climate change deniers and $454,000 to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ExxonMobil denied funding climate denial. ExxonMobil is a member of ALEC's “Enterprise Council“, its corporate leadership board.

In April 2014, ExxonMobil released a report publicly acknowledging climate change risk for the first time. ExxonMobil predicts that a rising global population, increasing living standards and increasing energy access will result in lower greenhouse gas emissions.

On October 14, 2015, Ted Lieu and Mark DeSaulnier, Democratic members of The United States House of Representatives from California, wrote to the United States Attorney General requesting an investigation into whether ExxonMobil violated any federal laws by "failing to disclose truthful information" about climate change. The New York Attorney General is investigating whether ExxonMobil misled the public or stock holders regarding the impact of climate change.

References

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17. http://insideclimatenews.org/news/18122015/exxon-mobil-carbon-tax-rhetoric-or-reality-climate-change-rex-tillerson
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20. "Put a Tiger In Your Think Tank". Mother Jones. May 2005. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
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22. Barnett, Antony (November 28, 2004). "Claims by think-tank outrage eco-groups". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved January 16, 2007.
23. ^ Ward, Bob (September 4, 2006). "Letter from Royal Society to ExxoMobil" (PDF). London: The Guardian. Royal Society. Retrieved October 18, 2006.
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25. Foley, Stephen (October 23, 2011). "Rockefeller's descendants tell Exxon to face the reality of climate change". The Independent. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
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36. "Exxon Mobil Acknowledges Climate Change Risk - You Read That Correctly". Investing.com. 1 April 2014.
37. Phillis, Michael; Rust, Susanne. "Congressmen want probe of Exxon Mobil 'failing to disclose' climate change data". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
38. Goldenberg, Suzanne (October 16, 2015). "Exxon's climate change denial warrants federal inquiry, congressmen say". The Guardian. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
39. Hasemyer, David (October 16, 2015). "Two U.S. Representatives Seek Justice Department Inquiry into Exxon". InsideClimate News. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
40. McKibben, Bill (October 21, 2015). "Exxon Knew Everything There Was to Know About Climate Change by the Mid-1980s—and Denied It". The Nation. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
41. Gillis, Justin; Kraussnov, Clifford (November 5, 2015). "Exxon Mobil Investigated for Possible Climate Change Lies by New York Attorney General". The New York Times. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
42. Mooney, Chris (November 5, 2015). "New York is investigating Exxon Mobil for allegedly misleading the public about climate change". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 6, 2015.

• ExxonMobil
• Climate change controversies