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{{short description|Overview of climate-related ExxonMobil controversies}}
The '''Exxon Mobil climate change controversy''' describes ]'s activities related to climate change, including research, ], ], advertising, and grant making. Some activities were conducted with the purpose of delaying widespread acceptance and ] on ].
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{For|a more general outline of ExxonMobil controversies|Criticism of ExxonMobil}}
]
From the 1980s to mid 2000s, ] was a leader in ], opposing ] to curtail global warming. For example, ExxonMobil was a significant influence in preventing ratification of the ] by the United States.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last1=van den Hove |first1=Sybille |last2=Le Menestrel |first2=Marc |last3=de Bettignies |first3=Henri-Claude |date=2002 |title=The oil industry and climate change: strategies and ethical dilemmas |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3763/cpol.2002.0202 |journal=Climate Policy |language=en |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=3–18 |doi=10.3763/cpol.2002.0202 |bibcode=2002CliPo...2....3V |issn=1469-3062}}</ref> ExxonMobil funded organizations critical of the Kyoto Protocol and seeking to undermine public opinion about the scientific consensus that ] is caused by the burning of ]s. Of the ], ExxonMobil has been the most active in the debate surrounding climate change.<ref name=":6" /> According to a 2007 analysis by the ], the company used ], tactics, organizations, and personnel the ] used in its denials of the link between lung ].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air {{!}} Union of Concerned Scientists |url=https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/smoke-mirrors-hot-air |access-date=2024-02-06 |website=www.ucsusa.org |language=en}}</ref>


ExxonMobil has funded, among other groups, the ], ], ], the ] and the ].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mann |first=Michael E. |title=The hockey stick and the climate wars: dispatches from the front lines |date=2014 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-52638-8 |edition=Paperback |location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|67}}<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> Between 1998 and 2004, ExxonMobil granted $16&nbsp;million to advocacy organizations which disputed the impact of global warming.<ref>Weart, S. (2025) . In: The Discovery of Global Warming</ref> From 1989 till April 2010, ExxonMobil and its predecessor Mobil purchased regular Thursday advertorials in '']'', '']'', and '']'' that said that the science of climate change was unsettled.<ref name=":7" />
From the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Exxon funded internal and university collaborations, broadly in line with the developing public scientific approach. After the 1980s, Exxon was a leader in ], opposing regulations to curtail ]. ExxonMobil funded organizations critical of the ] and seeking to undermine public opinion about the scientific consensus that ] is caused by the burning of ]s. Exxon helped to found and lead the ] of businesses opposed to the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.


An analysis conducted by ''The Carbon Brief'' in 2011 found that 9 out of 10 of the most prolific authors who cast doubt on climate change or speak against it had ties to ]. Greenpeace have said that ] invested more than US$50 million in the past 50 years on spreading doubts about climate change.<ref name="ExxonMobil and Koch Industries denial funding" /><ref name="CarbonBrief Study: 9 out of top 10 authors linked to ExxonMobil" /><ref name="Greenpeace Study: Exposing the dirty money behind fake climate science" />
In 2014, ExxonMobil publicly acknowledged climate change risks. It nominally supports a ].


Since the 1970s, ExxonMobil and its predecessors had engaged in climate research focusing on global warming. From the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Exxon funded internal and university collaborations, broadly in line with the developing public scientific approach. A review in 2023 found that the global warming projections documented by and the models created by ExxonMobil's own scientists between 1977 and 2003 had "accurately" projected and "skillfully" modeled global warming due to fossil fuel burning, and had reasonably estimated how much {{CO2}} would lead to dangerous warming. The authors of the paper concluded: "Yet, whereas academic and government scientists worked to communicate what they knew to the public, ExxonMobil worked to deny it."<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":9" />
== Early climate change related activities ==


In April 2014, ExxonMobil released a report publicly acknowledging climate change risk for the first time. ExxonMobil predicted that a rising global population, increasing living standards and increasing energy access would result in lower ].<ref name=":10" /> In 2015 it expressed support for a ].<ref name="econo" />
In 1966, ] scientist James F. Black was among the co-authors of the two-volume "Weather and Climate Modification Problems and Prospects," published by the ], which said that the rate of build-up of ] ({{CO2}}), the main contributor to climate change, in the atmosphere corresponded with the rate of production of carbon dioxide by human consumption of ]s.<ref name=nas1966>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lz4rAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA86&vq=moller&pg=PA86|title=Weather and Climate Modification Problems and Prospects|author=]|date=1966}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015a}}: "Black helped draft a National Academy of Sciences report... Published in 1966, it said the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere "agrees quite well with the rate of its production by man's consumption of fossil fuels."</ref> In July 1977, long before global warming was a national issue, Black, then a senior scientist in Exxon's Research & Engineering division, warned company executives, at a meeting of Exxon's Management Committee in Exxon corporate headquarters, of the danger of atmospheric carbon dioxide increases from the burning of fossil fuels.<ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015a}}: "By 1977... he made a presentation to the company's leading executives warning that carbon dioxide accumulating in the upper atmosphere would warm the planet and if the CO2 concentration continued to rise, it could harm the environment and humankind."</ref><ref name=fronline20150916>{{cite news |title=Investigation Finds Exxon Ignored Its Own Early Climate Change Warnings |date=September 16, 2015 |first=Jason M. |last=Breslow |url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/environment/investigation-finds-exxon-ignored-its-own-early-climate-change-warnings/ |publisher=] |work=] |accessdate=October 14, 2015}}</ref> The next year, Black revised and summarized his presentation, and said that independent researchers estimated a doubling of carbon dioxide levels would increase average global temperatures by as much as 2 to 3 degrees Celsius.<ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015b}}: "Black... warned Exxon scientists and managers that independent researchers estimated a doubling of the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere would increase average global temperatures by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (4 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit), and as much as 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit) at the poles. Rainfall might get heavier in some regions, and other places might turn to desert."</ref><ref name=fronline20150916/>


In 2015, the ] launched an investigation whether ExxonMobil's statements to investors were consistent with the company's decades of extensive scientific research.<ref name="nyt20151105" /><ref name=":11" />
From the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Exxon funded internal and university collaborations, broadly in line with the developing public scientific approach, and developed a reputation for expertise in atmospheric carbon dioxide.<ref name="latimes20151009" /><ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015a}}: "From the late 1970s to the mid-80s, Exxon scientists worked at the cutting edge of climate change research... Piercy and O'Loughlin seemed particularly interested in following the emerging climate science... Exxon was building a reputation for expertise on carbon dioxide, prompting government and industry to seek its input on the issue."</ref> Exxon launched a research program into climate change and climate modelling. Exxon outfitted their largest ], the ''Esso Atlantic'', with a laboratory and sensors to measure the absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans, a critical factor in climate change.<ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015}}: "Exxon delved into the oceans' role by installing a state-of-the-art lab aboard the Esso Atlantic, one of the biggest supertankers of the time. Exxon planned to gather atmospheric and oceanic CO2 samples"</ref> In 1981, Exxon shifted its research focus from sampling to ]. Exxon's climate modelling efforts in the 1980s confirmed the emerging scientific consensus on the risks of global warming.<ref>{{cite news |title=Exxon Confirmed Global Warming Consensus in 1982 with In-House Climate Models |first1=Lisa |last1=Song |first2=Neela |last2=Banerjee |first3=David |last3=Hasemyer |date=September 22, 2015 |accessdate=January 25, 2016 |url=http://insideclimatenews.org/news/18092015/exxon-confirmed-global-warming-consensus-in-1982-with-in-house-climate-models |agency=]}}</ref> Between 1980 and 2015, Exxon and ExxonMobil researchers and academic collaborators published more than 50 peer reviewed papers on climate research and climate policy.<ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015}}</ref>
In October 2018, based on this investigation, ], which claimed the company defrauded shareholders by downplaying the risks of climate change for its businesses.<ref name="Times 10-24-18" />


== Own research ==
ExxonMobil integrated climate change into its operational planning. In 1981, Exxon's in-house climate experts raised concerns regarding developing the offshore ] off ], which is 71% carbon dioxide.<ref name="dunn">
From the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Exxon, one of predecessors of ExxonMobil, had a public reputation as a pioneer in climate change research.<ref name="Jennings 2015">{{harvnb|Jennings|Grandoni|Rust|2015}}</ref> Exxon funded internal and university collaborations, broadly in line with the developing public scientific approach, and developed a reputation for expertise in ] ({{CO2}}).<ref>{{harvnb|Jerving|Jennings|Hirsch|Rust|2015}}: Since the late 1970s and into the 1980s, Exxon had been at the forefront of climate change research, funding its own internal science as well as research from outside experts at Columbia University and MIT.</ref> Between the 1970s and 2015, Exxon and ExxonMobil researchers and academic collaborators published dozens of research papers.<ref>{{harvnb|Gillis|Schwartz|2015}}: From the time the scientific community first began worrying about the climate issue in the 1970s, the company financed research on the topic, with its scientists generally supporting an emerging consensus that ] could pose risks for society. Company scientists have contributed to dozens of scientific papers that supported this view and explored the extent of the risks.</ref> ExxonMobil provided a list of over 50&nbsp;article citations from that period.<ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015b}}: "ExxonMobil scientists have been involved in climate research and related policy analysis for more than 30 years, yielding more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed publications."</ref><ref name="EMP102115">{{cite web |last1=Cohen |first1=Ken |title=When it Come to Climate Change, Read the Documents |url=http://www.exxonmobilperspectives.com/2015/10/21/when-it-comes-to-climate-change-read-the-documents/ |access-date=Jan 31, 2016 |website=ExxonMobil Perspectives |publisher=ExxonMobil}}</ref>
{{cite journal

| first1 = Marwan | last1 = Batubara
In July 1977, a senior scientist of Exxon, James Black reported to the company's executives that there was a general scientific agreement at that time that the burning of fossil fuels was the most likely manner in which mankind was influencing global climate change.<ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015b}}: "By 1977... he made a presentation to the company's leading executives warning that carbon dioxide accumulating in the ] would warm the planet and if the {{CO2|link=yes}} concentration continued to rise, it could harm the environment and humankind."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Black|1978}} What is considered the best presently available climate model for treating the Greenhouse Effect predicts that a doubling of the {{CO2}} concentration in the atmosphere would produce a mean temperature increase of about 2°C to 3°C over most of the earth.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Hall|2015}}: ...the company's knowledge of climate change dates back to July 1977, when its senior scientist James Black delivered a sobering message on the topic. "In the first place, there is general scientific agreement that the most likely manner in which mankind is influencing the global climate is through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels," Black told Exxon's management committee. A year later he warned Exxon that doubling {{CO2|link=yes}} gases in the atmosphere would increase average global temperatures by two or three degrees—a number that is consistent with the scientific consensus today. He continued to warn that "present thinking holds that man has a time window of five to 10 years before the need for hard decisions regarding changes in energy strategies might become critical."</ref> In 1979–1982, Exxon conducted a research program of climate change and climate modeling, including a research project of equipping their largest ] '']'' with a laboratory and sensors to measure the absorption of carbon dioxide ].<ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015a}}: Exxon budgeted more than $1 million over three years for the tanker project to measure how quickly the oceans were taking in {{CO2|link=yes}}.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Garvey |first1=Edward |last2=Prahl |first2=Fred |last3=Nazimek |first3=Kenneth |last4=Shaw |first4=Henry |title=Exxon Global {{CO2}} Measurement System|journal=IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement|date=March 1982 |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=32–36|doi=10.1109/TIM.1982.6312509 |bibcode=1982ITIM...31...32G |s2cid=9477708 }}</ref> In 1980, Exxon noted that ]s increase {{CO2}} emissions over their petroleum equivalents.<ref>{{cite news |title=Highlighting the Allure of Synfuels, Exxon Played Down the Climate Risks |first=John H. |last=Cushman Jr. |date=October 8, 2015 |agency=] |url=http://insideclimatenews.org/news/08102015/highlighting-allure-synfuels-exxon-played-down-climate-risks}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Shaw|McCall|1980}}</ref> Exxon also studied ways of avoiding {{CO2}} emissions if the ] off Indonesia was to be developed.<ref name=icn20151008>{{cite news |first1=Neela |last1=Banerjee |first2=Lisa |last2=Song |title=Exxon's Business Ambition Collided with Climate Change Under a Distant Sea |date=October 8, 2015 |url=http://insideclimatenews.org/news/08102015/Exxons-Business-Ambition-Collided-with-Climate-Change-Under-a-Distant-Sea |access-date=January 25, 2016 |agency=]}}</ref>
| first2 = Widodo Wahyu | last2 = Purwanto

| first2 = Akhmad | last2 = Fauzi
In 1981, Exxon shifted its research focus to ]ling.<ref name=icn20150922>{{cite news |title=Exxon Confirmed Global Warming Consensus in 1982 with In-House Climate Models |first1=Lisa |last1=Song |first2=Neela |last2=Banerjee |first3=David |last3=Hasemyer |date=September 22, 2015 |access-date=January 25, 2016 |url=http://insideclimatenews.org/news/18092015/exxon-confirmed-global-warming-consensus-in-1982-with-in-house-climate-models |agency=]}}</ref> In 1982, Exxon's environmental affairs office circulated an internal report to Exxon's management which said that the ] could be catastrophic, and that a significant reduction in fossil fuel consumption would be necessary to curtail future climate change. It also said that "there is concern among some scientific groups that once the effects are measurable, they might not be reversible."<ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015a}}</ref>
| title = Development of East Natuna Gas Field for Fulfilling Long Term National Gas Demand

| url = http://tf.ugm.ac.id/astechnova/proceeding/Vol3No2/Astechnova_2014_2_02.pdf
In 1992, the senior ice researcher, leading a research team in Exxon's Canadian subsidiary ], assessed how global warming could affect Exxon's ] operations, and reported that exploration and development costs in the ] might be lower, while ] and rougher seas could threaten the company's coastal and offshore infrastructure.<ref>{{harvnb|Jerving|Jennings|Hirsch|Rust|2015}}: An extended open water season, Croasdale said in 1992, could potentially reduce exploratory drilling and construction costs by 30% to 50%...he advised the company to consider and incorporate potential "negative outcomes," including a rise in the sea level, which could threaten onshore infrastructure; bigger waves, which could damage offshore drilling structures; and thawing permafrost, which could make the earth buckle and slide under buildings and pipelines.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Whitman|2015}}: Croasdale said global warming could lower the costs but increase the length of time it would be possible to explore for oil in the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska and Canada's ] Territory. He and his team of researchers had developed models that showed with climate change, drilling in the Beaufort Sea could grow from two months per year to as many as five, with costs cut by as much as half. At the same time, rising sea level due to climate change could hurt infrastructure</ref> Imperial included these forecasts into its facility planning in the ] Delta in the ]. In 1996, ], another predecessor of ExxonMobil, calculated the climate changes effect to the ] project. An ExxonMobil spokesperson said that standard practice in major project planning is to consider a range of factors, and that ExxonMobil's consideration of environmental risks was not inconsistent with their public policy advocacy.<ref name=latimes20151231/>
| journal = Proceedings of the 3rd Applied Science for Technology Innovation, ASTECHNOVA 2014

| year = 2014
In 2016, the ], a ], ] environmental ], claimed that from 1957 onward ], one of predecessors of nowadays ExxonMobil, was aware of rising {{CO2}} in the atmosphere and the prospect that it was likely to cause global warming. ExxonMobil responded to this claim that "to suggest that we had definitive knowledge about human-induced climate change before the world's scientists is not a credible thesis."<ref>{{cite news |first=John |last=Schwartz |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/14/science/pressure-on-exxon-over-climate-change-intensifies-with-new-documents.html |title=Pressure on Exxon Over Climate Change Intensifies With New Documents |date=April 14, 2016 |access-date=April 15, 2016 |newspaper=] |quote= The documents, according to the environmental law center's director, Carroll Muffett, suggest that the industry had the underlying knowledge of climate change even 60 years ago. "From 1957 onward, there is no doubt that Humble Oil, which is now Exxon, was clearly on notice" about rising {{CO2}} in the atmosphere and the prospect that it was likely to cause global warming, he said. ... Alan Jeffers, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil, called the new allegations absurd. "To suggest that we had definitive knowledge about human-induced climate change before the world's scientists is not a credible thesis," he said.}}</ref>
| pages = 174–184

| format = PDF
=== Denial tactics despite own research results ===
| accessdate = 2016-01-28
In 1989, shortly after the presentation by the Exxon's manager of science and strategy development Duane LeVine to the board of directors which reiterated that introducing public policy to ] "can lead to irreversible and costly Draconian steps," the company shifted its position on the climate change to publicly questioning it.<ref name="Jennings 2015" /><ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015b}}: "After a decade of frank internal discussions on global warming and conducting unbiased studies on it, Exxon changed direction in 1989 and spent more than 20 years discrediting the research its own scientists had once confirmed."</ref> This shift was caused by concerns about the potential impact of the ] measures to the oil industry.<ref name="Jennings 2015" />
}}</ref> In 1984, Exxon's climate modellers reported that if the carbon dioxide in the East Natuna gas field were released to the atmosphere in the course of extracting the field's natural gas, it would become "the world's largest point source emitter of {{CO2}} and raises concern for the possible incremental impact of Natuna on the {{CO2}} greenhouse problem." The position of the Exxon management was that "Natuna could not proceed unless the {{CO2}} was handled in a cost-effective way that did not harm the atmosphere."<ref name=icn20151008>{{cite news |first1=Neela |last1=Banerjee |first2=Lisa |last2=Song |title=Exxon's Business Ambition Collided with Climate Change Under a Distant Sea |date=October 8, 2015 |url=http://insideclimatenews.org/news/08102015/Exxons-Business-Ambition-Collided-with-Climate-Change-Under-a-Distant-Sea |accessdate=January 25, 2016 |agency=]}}</ref> As of 2016, the East Natuna gas field has yet to be developed due to economic and environmental constraints.<ref name=icn20151008/><ref name=jp070116>

{{cite news
In the fall of 2015, '']'' published a series of reports on an eight-month investigation based on decades of internal Exxon Mobil files and interviews with former Exxon employees, which stated "Exxon conducted cutting-edge climate research decades ago and then, without revealing all that it had learned, worked at the forefront of climate denial, manufacturing doubt about the scientific consensus that its own scientists had confirmed."<ref name="icn20151022" /> Exxon responded to the article by saying the allegations were based on cherry-picked statements from ExxonMobil employees and noting the ongoing climate research the company engaged in during the time in question.<ref name="EMP102115" />
| first1 = Raras | last1 = Cahyafitri

| title = Joint operation of Natuna block proposed
The company also denied claims made by ''InsideClimate News'' that it had curtailed carbon dioxide research in favor of climate denial. Exxon's statement said the drop in oil prices hurt oil companies in the 1980s and caused research cutbacks. The statement also claimed that it was uncertain if increases in greenhouse gas emissions caused significant warming, or if immediate action on climate change was necessary.<ref name="EMP112815">{{cite web |last1=Cohen |first1=Ken |date=November 28, 2015 |title=A History Lesson for InsideClimate News |url=http://www.exxonmobilperspectives.com/2015/11/28/a-history-lesson-for-insideclimate-news/ |access-date=Jan 31, 2016 |website=ExxonMobil Perspectives |publisher=ExxonMobil}}</ref>
| url = http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/07/joint-operation-natuna-block-proposed.html

| date = 2016-01-07
The ] of Exxon Mobil's and its precessors' internal reports, peer-reviewed research papers, and ] Exxon placed in the op-ed section of ''The New York Times'' between 1972 and 2001, by ] researchers Geoffrey Supran and ] found that "83% of peer-reviewed papers and 80% of internal documents acknowledge that climate change is real and human-caused, yet only 12% of advertorials do so, with 81% instead expressing doubt". The research concluded that ExxonMobil contributed to advancing climate science but promoted doubt about it in advertorials.<ref name="iop.org">{{cite journal |last1=Supran |first1=Geoffrey |last2=Oreskes |first2=Naomi |author-link2=Naomi Oreskes |date=23 August 2017 |title=Assessing ExxonMobil's climate change communications (1977–2014) |journal=] |volume=12 |pages=084019 |bibcode=2017ERL....12h4019S |doi=10.1088/1748-9326/aa815f |doi-access=free |number=8}}</ref><ref name="PBS-NH">{{YouTube|id=w5g1nPfXOIA|title=Academic study concludes Exxon Mobil misled on climate change}} August 23, 2017 ]</ref> The report was criticized by ExxonMobil and the ], an oil and gas lobbying group, because of alleged incomplete sampling of data collected by ], authors' involvement in the ''#ExxonKnew'' campaign, and partial financing by the Rockefeller Family Fund.<ref name="eid060917">{{cite web |last1=Walrath |first1=Spencer |date=September 6, 2017 |title=Exposed: Harvard Study Omitted Evidence to Allege ExxonMobil 'Mislead' Public on Climate |url=http://eidclimate.org/exposed-harvard-study-omitted-evidence-to-allege-exxonmobil-misled-public-on-climate/ |access-date=February 11, 2018 |work=Energy In Depth}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=ExxonMobil statement on inaccurate, activist-funded climate communications study |url=http://corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/company/news-and-updates/news-releases-and-alerts/statement-on-study |access-date=February 11, 2018 |publisher=ExxonMobil Corp}}</ref> The IPAA also pointed out that Exxon and Mobil were separate companies during much of the period in question, claiming that "the climate research was done primarily by Exxon and the advertorials were primarily done by Mobil."<ref name="eid060917" />
| newspaper = ]
| accessdate = 2016-01-24
}}</ref>


In 2023, '']'' journal published a paper reporting that the global warming projections documented by and the models created by ExxonMobil's own scientists between 1977 and 2003 had "accurately" projected and "skillfully" modeled global warming due to fossil fuel burning, and had reasonably estimated how much {{CO2}} would lead to dangerous warming. The authors of the paper concluded: "Yet, whereas academic and government scientists worked to communicate what they knew to the public, ExxonMobil worked to deny it."<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal |last1=Supran |first1=G. |last2=Rahmstorf |first2=S. |last3=Oreskes |first3=N. |date=2023-01-13 |title=Assessing ExxonMobil's global warming projections |journal=Science |language=en |volume=379 |issue=6628 |pages=eabk0063 |bibcode=2023Sci...379.0063S |doi=10.1126/science.abk0063 |issn=0036-8075 |pmid=36634176 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=":9">{{Cite web |last=Milman |first=Oliver |title=Revealed: Exxon made 'breathtakingly' accurate climate predictions in 1970s and '80s |url=https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2023/01/revealed-exxon-made-breathtakingly-accurate-climate-predictions-in-1970s-and-80s/ |access-date=2024-10-10 |website=]}}</ref>
In 1989, Exxon's manager of science and strategy development made a presentation to the board of directors noting the scientific consensus that gases released by burning fossil fuels could raise global temperatures between 2.7 and 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit by the middle of the 21st century, raising sea levels “with generally negative consequences.”<ref>{{cite news |title=How Exxon went from leader to skeptic on climate change research |first1=Katie |last1=Jennings |first2=Dino |last2=Grandoni |first3=Susanne |last3=Rust |date=October 23, 2015 |url=http://graphics.latimes.com/exxon-research/ |newspaper=] |accessdate=January 24, 2016}}</ref> In 1992, the senior ice researcher, leading a ]-based research team in Exxon’s Canadian subsidiary ], assessed how global warming could affect Exxon’s Arctic operations, and reported that exploration and development costs in the ] might be lower, while higher ] and rougher seas could threaten the company’s coastal and offshore infrastructure.<ref name="latimes20151009">{{cite news |newspaper=] |url=http://graphics.latimes.com/exxon-arctic/ |title=What Exxon knew about the Earth's melting Arctic |first1=Sara |last1=Jerving |first2=Katie |last2=Jennings |first3=Masako Melissa |last3=Hirsch |first4=Susanne |last4=Rust |date=October 9, 2015 |accessdate=October 21, 2015}}</ref><ref name="ibt20151010">{{cite news |title=Exxon Arctic Drilling Benefitting From Global Warming: Oil Company Denied Climate Change Science While Factoring It Into Arctic Operations, Report Shows |first=Elizabeth |last=Whitman |date=October 10, 2015 |url=http://www.ibtimes.com/exxon-arctic-drilling-benefitting-global-warming-oil-company-denied-climate-change-2136118 |newspaper=] |accessdate=October 21, 2015}}</ref>


== Funding of climate change denial == == Funding of climate change denial ==
Of the ], ExxonMobil has been the most active in the debate surrounding climate change.<ref>{{harvnb|Van den Hove|Le Menestrel|De Bettignies|2002}}: Ever since climate change became a subject of public and policy concern, ExxonMobil has been the most active major oil corporation in the debate.</ref> In 2005, as competing major oil companies diversified into ] and ], ExxonMobil re-affirmed its mission as an oil and ] company.<ref>{{cite news |date=October 27, 2005 |title=Alternate energy not in cards at ExxonMobil |first=James R. |last=Healey |newspaper=] |access-date=February 5, 2016 |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2005-10-27-oil-invest-usat_x.htm}}</ref> According to a 2007 analysis by the ], the company used ], tactics, organizations, and personnel the ] used in its denials of the link between lung ].<ref name=":1">{{harvnb|Union of Concerned Scientists|2007}}: In its campaign to sow uncertainty about the scientific evidence on global warming, ExxonMobil has followed a corporate strategy pioneered by the tobacco industry. Because ExxonMobil's strategy, tactics, and even some personnel draw heavily from the tobacco industry's playbook, it is useful to look briefly at this earlier campaign</ref> ExxonMobil denied similarity to the tobacco industry.<ref>{{harvnb|Gillis|Schwartz|2015}}: ExxonMobil rejected the comparison to the tobacco industry</ref>


A study published in '']'' in 2015 found that ExxonMobil "may have played a particularly important role as corporate benefactors" in the production and diffusion of contrarian information.<ref name="Ferrell">{{cite journal|last1=Farrell|first1=Justin|title=Network structure and influence of the climate change counter-movement.|journal=Nature Climate Change|volume=6|issue=4|pages=370–374|date=November 30, 2015|doi=10.1038/nclimate2875|bibcode=2016NatCC...6..370F}}</ref>
Toward the end of the 1980s, Exxon curtailed its own climate research and was a leader in ].<ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015a}}: "After a decade of frank internal discussions on global warming and conducting unbiased studies on it, Exxon changed direction in 1989 and spent more than 20 years discrediting the research its own scientists had once confirmed."</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/08/exxon-climate-change-1981-climate-denier-funding |title=Exxon knew of climate change in 1981, email says – but it funded deniers for 27 more years |date=July 8, 2015 |accessdate=October 15, 2015 |newspaper=] |authorlink=Suzanne Goldenberg |first=Suzanne |last=Goldenberg}}</ref> Exxon helped to found and lead the ] of businesses opposed to greenhouse gas emission regulation.<ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015b}}: "Exxon helped to found and lead the Global Climate Coalition, an alliance of some of the world's largest companies seeking to halt government efforts to curb fossil fuel emissions."</ref><ref name="ibt20151010"/> ], Exxon and ExxonMobil ] from 1993 to 2006, was one of the most outspoken executives in the United States against regulation to curtail ].<ref name="wsj20010829">{{cite news|first=Thaddeus |last=Herrick |url=http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB999035936679805198 |title=Exxon CEO Lee Raymond's Stance On Global Warming Causes a Stir |newspaper=] |date= August 29, 2001}}</ref>


During the 1990s and 2000s Exxon helped advance climate change denial internationally.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lever-Tracy|first=Constance|title=Routledge Handbook of Climate Change and Society|year=2010|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9780203876213| page=256 |quote=major figures from the US (such as ExxonMobil, conservative think-tanks and leading contrarian scientists) have helped spread climate change denial to other nations.}}</ref><ref name=nyt170406>{{cite news |title=Enemy of the Planet |author-link=Paul Krugman |first=Paul |last=Krugman |date=April 17, 2006 |access-date=January 30, 2016 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407EEDD173FF934A25757C0A9609C8B63 |newspaper=The New York Times |quote= Although most governments have done little to curb greenhouse gases, and the Bush administration has done nothing, it's not clear that policies would have been any better even if Exxon Mobil had acted more responsibly. But the fact is that whatever small chance there was of action to limit global warming became even smaller because ExxonMobil chose to protect its profits by trashing good science.}}</ref> ExxonMobil was a significant influence in preventing ratification of the ] by the United States.<ref name=":0">{{harvnb|Van den Hove|Le Menestrel|De Bettignies|2002}}: ExxonMobil—together with its partners in US lobby groups—has been instrumental to the hindrance of US ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. I</ref> ExxonMobil funded organizations critical of the Kyoto Protocol and seeking to undermine public opinion about the scientific consensus that ] is caused by the burning of ]s. Exxon was a founding member of the board of directors of the ], composed of businesses opposed to greenhouse gas emission regulation.<ref>{{harvnb|Whitman|2015}}: The company, which in 1999 became ExxonMobil, helped found the Global Climate Coalition, which from 1989 to 2002 argued the role "of greenhouse gases in climate change is not well understood," ''The New York Times'' reported Friday.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015a}}: "Exxon helped to found and lead the Global Climate Coalition, an alliance of some of the world's largest companies seeking to halt government efforts to curb fossil fuel emissions."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Van den Hove|Le Menestrel|De Bettignies|2002}}: Instrumental to the implementation of Exxon's strategy was its participation in industry and lobby groups. Exxon is a prominent member of the ] (API), the major US petroleum industry trade association, and was, from the date of its creation in 1989, a board member of the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), one of the most influential US lobbying front group on the climate issue.</ref> According to '']'' magazine, between 2000 and 2003 ExxonMobil channelled at least $8,678,450 to forty organizations that employed disinformation campaigns including "skeptic propaganda masquerading as journalism" to influence the opinion of the public and political leaders about global warming.<ref name="Mooney">{{cite news |url=https://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/05/some_like_it_hot.html |title=Some Like It Hot |magazine=] |date=May 2005 |access-date=April 29, 2007 |first=Chris |last=Mooney |author-link=Chris Mooney (journalist)}}</ref><ref name="motherjones.com">{{cite news |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005/05/put-tiger-your-think-tank |title=Put a Tiger In Your Think Tank |date=May 2005 |magazine=] |access-date=October 20, 2015}}</ref>
ExxonMobil funded organizations critical of the ] and seeking to undermine public opinion about the scientific consensus that ] is caused by the burning of ]s. According to '']'', 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.<ref name="Mooney">{{cite news |url=http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/05/some_like_it_hot.html |title=Some Like It Hot |magazine=] |date=May 2005 |accessdate=April 29, 2007 |first=Chris |last=Mooney |authorlink=Chris Mooney (journalist)}}</ref><ref name="motherjones.com">{{cite news |url=http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005/05/put-tiger-your-think-tank |title=Put a Tiger In Your Think Tank |date=May 2005 |magazine=] |accessdate=October 20, 2015}}</ref> ExxonMobil has funded, among other groups, the ], ], ], ], ], and ].<ref name="guardian20060920">{{cite news |url=http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1876538,00.html |title=Royal Society Letter to Exxon |newspaper=] |location=UK |date=September 20, 2006 |first=David |last= Adam |accessdate=October 22, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1361276,00.html |title=Claims by think-tank outrage eco-groups |work=The Guardian |location=UK |date=November 28, 2004 |first1=Antony |last1=Barnett |first2=Mark |last2=Townsend |accessdate=January 16, 2007 }}</ref> The international network of environmental organizations ] said ] and others of granted millions of dollars to think-tanks and lobbyists opposed to the Kyoto Protocol.<ref name=guardian20050305>{{Cite news |url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1431306,00.html |title='Denial lobby' turns up the heat |publisher=] |accessdate=January 27, 2016 |location=] |date=March 5, 2005}}</ref>


ExxonMobil has funded, among other groups, the ], ], ], the ] and the ].<ref name=":2">{{harvnb|Mann|2013|p=67}}: "in recent years, the Heartland Institute, a group that has been funded by... fossil fuel (Exxon, Koch, ]) interests, has financed a series of one-sided conferences on climate change, featuring a slate of climate change deniers"</ref><ref name=":3">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/28/business/exxon-backs-groups-that-question-global-warming.html |access-date=2024-10-10 |first=((Jennifer 8.)) |last=Lee |author-link=Jennifer 8. Lee |date=May 28, 2003 |newspaper=] |title=Exxon Backs Groups that Question Global Warming |quote=the company... has increased donations to... policy groups that, like Exxon itself, question the human role in global warming and argue that proposed government policies to limit carbon dioxide emissions associated with global warming are too heavy handed. Exxon now gives more than $1 million a year to such organizations, which include the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Frontiers of Freedom, the George C. Marshall Institute, the American Council for Capital Formation Center for Policy Research and the American Legislative Exchange Council... Exxon has become the single-largest corporate donor to some of the groups, accounting for more than 10 percent of their annual budgets. While a few of the groups say they also receive some money from other oil companies, it is only a small fraction of what they receive from ExxonMobil. |url-access=limited}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{cite news |url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1361276,00.html |title=Claims by think-tank outrage eco-groups |newspaper=] |location=UK |date=November 28, 2004 |first1=Antony |last1=Barnett |first2=Mark |last2=Townsend |access-date=January 16, 2007 }}</ref> Since the ], Exxon has given more than $20 million to organizations supporting climate change denial.<ref>{{cite book |title=Climate Change Science: A Modern Synthesis: Volume 1 - The Physical Climate |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tbtEAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA461 |page=461 |author1=Thomas G Farmer |author2=John Cook |isbn=978-9400757578 |year=2013 |publisher=Springer Science and Business Media |quote=In the decade after the Kyoto Protocol was introduced in 1997, Exxon-Mobil invested more than $20 million in think tanks that promoted climate change denial. This inspired the Royal Society of London to challenge Exxon-Mobil to stop funding organizations that disseminated climate denial.}}</ref>
Between 1998 and 2004, ExxonMobil granted $16&nbsp;million to select advocacy organizations which disputed the impact of global warming.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Public and Climate Change |author=] |url=https://www.aip.org/history/climate/public2.htm |accessdate=January 2016 |quote=Other corporations persisted in denial. The largest of all, ExxonMobil, continued to spend tens of millions of dollars on false-front organizations that amplified any claim denying the scientific consensus.}}</ref> Exxon used disinformation tactics similar to those used by the ] in its denials of the link between lung cancer and smoking, and according to a 2007 analysis by the ], the company used "many of the same organizations and personnel to cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue".<ref name="ucs200702">{{cite news |title=Smoke Mirrors & Hot Air |date=February 2007 |url=http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/global_warming/exxon_report.pdf |agency=] |accessdate=October 14, 2015 |format=PDF}}</ref> Of 2005 grantees of ExxonMobil, 54 were found to have statements regarding climate change on their websites, of which 25 were consistent with the scientific consensus on climate change, while 39 "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence," according to a 2006 letter from the the ] to ExxonMobil. The Royal Society said ExxonMobil granted $2.9 million to US organizations which "misinformed the public about climate change through their websites."<ref name=rs20060904a>{{cite news |first=Bob |last=Ward |url=http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2006/09/19/LettertoNick.pdf |title=Letter from Royal Society to ExxoMobil |agency=] |publisher=] |date=September 4, 2006 |accessdate=October 18, 2006 |format=PDF |location=London}}</ref> According to ] ] ], ExxonMobil contributed about 4% of the total funding of what Brulle identifies as the "climate change counter-movement."<ref name=frontline20121023>{{cite news |url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/environment/climate-of-doubt/robert-brulle-inside-the-climate-change-countermovement/ |title=Robert Brulle: Inside the Climate Change "Countermovement" |publisher=] |work='']'' |date=October 23, 2012 |accessdate=February 21, 2015}}</ref>


Between 1998 and 2004, ExxonMobil granted $16&nbsp;million to advocacy organizations which disputed the impact of global warming.<ref name=":5">{{cite web|author=Spencer Weart|author-link=Spencer Weart|title=The Public and Climate Change|url=https://www.aip.org/history/climate/public2.htm|access-date=2021-08-12|quote=Other corporations persisted in denial. The largest of all, ExxonMobil, continued to spend tens of millions of dollars on false-front organizations that amplified any claim denying the scientific consensus.|archive-date=2016-06-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629155458/https://www.aip.org/history/climate/public2.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In January 2007, ExxonMobil vice president for ] 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 ] and "'five or six' similar groups".<ref name="CohenJan2007">{{cite news | url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16593606/ | title=Exxon cuts ties to global warming skeptics | work=MSNBC | date=January 12, 2007 | accessdate=May 9, 2007}}</ref> While the company did not publicly state which the other similar groups were, a May 2007 report by ] 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.<ref name="Greenpeace-climate change">{{cite press release|title=Exxon still funding Climate Change Deniers|publisher=]|date=May 18, 2007|url=http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/exxon-still-funding-climate-ch/|accessdate=30 September 2012}}</ref>


The ] conducted a survey in 2006 that found ExxonMobil had given US$2.9 million to American groups that "misinformed the public about climate change", 39 of which "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence".<ref name="G2">{{cite news |last=Adams |first=David |date=20 September 2006 |title=Royal Society tells Exxon: stop funding climate change denial |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/sep/20/oilandpetrol.business |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140211153615/http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/sep/20/oilandpetrol.business |archive-date=11 February 2014 |access-date=2 August 2007 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Ward |first=Bob |date=4 September 2006 |title=Letter to Nick Thomas, Director, Corporate affairs, Esso UK Ltd. (ExxonMobil) |url=http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2006/09/19/LettertoNick.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170306053140/http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2006/09/19/LettertoNick.pdf |archive-date=6 March 2017 |access-date=6 August 2007 |publisher=] |location=London}}</ref><ref name="rs20060904a">{{cite news |last=Ward |first=Bob |date=September 4, 2006 |title=Letter from Royal Society to ExxoMobil |url=http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2006/09/19/LettertoNick.pdf |access-date=October 18, 2006 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |agency=]}}</ref> The Royal Society expressed "concerns about ExxonMobil's funding of lobby groups that seek to misrepresent the scientific evidence relating to climate change."<ref name="rs20060904b">{{cite web |date=September 4, 2006 |title=Royal Society and ExxonMobil |url=https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/publications/2006/royal-society-exxonmobil/ |access-date=April 24, 2009 |publisher=]}}</ref> Also in 2006, the Royal Society issued a demand that ExxonMobil withdraw funding for climate change denial. The letter drew criticism, notably from ] who argued the society attempted to "politicize the private funding of science and to censor scientific debate".<ref>{{cite web |date=2006 |title=Interfaith Stewardship Alliance Newsletter |url=http://www-tc.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/green/isanewsletter.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210730195618/http://www-tc.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/green/isanewsletter.pdf |archive-date=30 July 2021 |access-date=10 December 2014 |work=Moyers on America}}</ref>
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.<ref name=guardian20080528>{{cite news |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/28/climatechange.fossilfuels/ |title=Exxon to cut funding to climate change denial groups |accessdate=December 23, 2008 |newspaper=] |location=London |first=David |last=Adam |date=May 28, 2008}}</ref> In 2008, ExxonMobil funded such organizations<ref>{{cite news |accessdate=July 1, 2009 |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/01/exxon-mobil-climate-change-sceptics-funding |title=ExxonMobil continuing to fund climate skeptic groups, records show |newspaper=] |location=UK |date=July 1, 2009 | first=David | last=Adam}}</ref> and was named one of the most prominent promoters of climate change misinformation.<ref>{{cite news |first=Josh |last=Harkinson |url=http://www.motherjones.com/special-reports/2009/12/dirty-dozen-climate-change-denial |title=The Dirty Dozen of Climate Change Denial |magazine=] |date=December 4, 2009 |accessdate=December 21, 2015}}</ref> According to Brulle in a 2012 '']'' interview, ExxonMobil had ceased funding the climate change counter-movement by 2009,<ref name=frontline20121023>{{cite news |url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/environment/climate-of-doubt/robert-brulle-inside-the-climate-change-countermovement/ |title=Robert Brulle: Inside the Climate Change "Countermovement" |publisher=] |work='']'' |date=October 23, 2012 |accessdate=February 21, 2015}}</ref> but according to the environmental advocacy group ], ExxonMobil granted $1 million to climate denial groups in 2014.<ref name=gp20150708>{{cite web |title=Exxon Has Been Lying About Climate Change for Much Longer than We Thought |first=Jesse |last=Coleman |date=July 8, 2015 |publisher=] |accessdate=January 26, 2016 |url=http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/exxon-lying-climate-change-much-longer-thought/}}</ref><ref name=csm20150917>{{cite news |newspaper=] |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2015/0917/Exxon-knew-about-climate-change-decades-ago-spent-30M-to-discredit-it |accessdate=January 26, 2016 |title=Exxon knew about climate change decades ago, spent $30M to discredit it |first=Lonnie |last=Shekhtman |date=September 17, 2015}}</ref> ExxonMobil granted $10,000 to the ] founded by climate denial advocate, physicist, and environmental scientist ]<ref name=Harris>{{cite news |last1=Harris |first1=Dan |first2=Felicia |last2=Biberica |first3=Elizabeth |last3=Stuart |first4=Nils |last4=Kongshaug |url=http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=4506059 |title=Global Warming Denier: Fraud or 'Realist'? |agency=] |date=March 23, 2008 |accessdate=January 27, 2016}}</ref> and earlier funded the work of solar physicist ], who said that most global warming is caused by solar variation.<ref name=nyt20150222>{{cite news | author=Justin Gillis |author2=John Schwartz | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/us/ties-to-corporate-cash-for-climate-change-researcher-Wei-Hock-Soon.html |title=Deeper Ties to Corporate Cash for Doubtful Climate Researcher |date=February 21, 2015 |accessdate=2015-02-21 |newspaper=]}}</ref>


According to ] ] ], ExxonMobil contributed about 4% of the total funding of what Brulle identifies as the "climate change counter-movement."<ref name="frontline20121023">{{cite news |last=Breslow |first=Jason M. |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/robert-brulle-inside-the-climate-change-countermovement/ |title=Robert Brulle: Inside the Climate Change 'Countermovement{{'-}} |publisher=] |work=] |date=October 23, 2012 |access-date=2024-10-10}}</ref> The Drexel research found that much of the funding that direct sourcing from companies like ExxonMobil and ] was later diverted through third-party foundations like ] and ] to avoid traceability.<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Fischer|first1=Douglas|title="Dark Money" Funds Climate Change Denial Effort|url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dark-money-funds-climate-change-denial-effort/|access-date=February 16, 2016|magazine=Scientific American|date=2013-12-23}}</ref> In 2006, the ]-based watchdog organization ] said "ExxonMobil invests significant amounts in letting think-tanks, seemingly respectable sources, sow doubts about the need for governments to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Covert funding for ] is deeply hypocritical because ExxonMobil spends major sums on advertising to present itself as an environmentally responsible company."<ref>{{cite news |title=Exxon spends millions to cast doubt on warming |first1=Andrew |last1=Buncombe |first2=Stephen |last2=Castle |date=December 6, 2006 |newspaper=] |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/exxon-spends-millions-to-cast-doubt-on-warming-427404.html |access-date=February 1, 2016}}</ref>
== Lobbying in opposition to regulation of greenhouse gas emissions ==


Between 2007 and 2015, ExxonMobil gave $1.87 million to Republicans in congress and $454,000 to the ]. ExxonMobil denied funding climate denial.<ref>{{cite news |title=ExxonMobil gave millions to climate-denying lawmakers despite pledge |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/15/exxon-mobil-gave-millions-climate-denying-lawmakers |author-link=Suzanne Goldenberg |first=Suzanne |last=Goldenberg |date=July 15, 2015 |access-date=October 15, 2015 |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref> ExxonMobil was a member of ALEC's "Private Enterprise Advisory Council".;<ref>{{cite journal |journal=] |date=September 2015 |volume=132 |issue=2 |pages=157–171 |title=The climate responsibilities of industrial carbon producers |first1=Peter C. |last1=Frumhoff |first2=Richard |last2=Heede |first3=Naomi |last3=Oreskes |author-link3=Naomi Oreskes |doi=10.1007/s10584-015-1472-5 |bibcode=2015ClCh..132..157F |doi-access=free }}</ref> it left ALEC in 2018 .
In February 2001, the early days of the administration of US President ], ExxonMobil's head lobbyist in Washington wrote to the ] urging that "Clinton/Gore carry-overs with aggressive agendas" be kept out of "any decisional activities" on the US delegation to the working committees of the ]' ], recommending their replacement by scientists highly critical of the prevailing scientific consensus on climate change.<ref name=icn20151022>{{cite news |title=Exxon: The Road Not Taken, Exxon Sowed Doubt about Climate Science for Decades by Stressing Uncertainty |agency=] |date=October 22, 2015 |accessdate=December 22, 2015 |first1=David |last1=Hasemyer |first2=John H. |last2=Cushman Jr. |url=http://insideclimatenews.org/news/22102015/Exxon-Sowed-Doubt-about-Climate-Science-for-Decades-by-Stressing-Uncertainty}}</ref> Political influence on the IPCC has been documented by the release of a memo by ExxonMobil to the Bush administration, and its effects on the IPCC's leadership. The memo led to strong Bush administration lobbying, evidently at the behest of ExxonMobil, to oust ], a climate scientist, from the IPCC chairmanship, and to have him replaced by Pachauri, who was seen at the time as more mild-mannered and industry-friendly.<ref name = "New Scientist">{{cite web | title=Top climate scientist ousted | date=19 April 2002 | publisher=] | first=Fred | last=Pearce | url=http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2191 | accessdate=24 July 2007}}</ref><ref name = "Common Dreams">{{cite news | title=US and Oil Lobby Oust Climate Change Scientist | date=20 April 2002 | accessdate=24 July 2007 | first=Julian | last=Borger | url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,687650,00.html | publisher=Guardian | location=London}}</ref>


In January 2007, ExxonMobil vice president for ] Kenneth Cohen said that, as of 2006, ExxonMobil had ceased funding of the ] and "'five or six' similar groups".<ref name="CohenJan2007">{{cite news | url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16593606 | title=Exxon cuts ties to global warming skeptics | work=NBC News | date=January 12, 2007 | access-date=May 9, 2007}}</ref> While ExxonMobil did not identify the other similar groups, a May 2007 report by ] listed five groups "at the heart of the climate change denial industry" ExxonMobil had stopped funding, as well as 41 similar groups which were still receiving ExxonMobil funds.<ref name="Greenpeace-climate change">{{cite press release|title=Exxon still funding Climate Change Deniers|publisher=]|date=May 18, 2007|url=http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/exxon-still-funding-climate-ch/|access-date=30 September 2012}}</ref>
In 2006, the ] expressed "concerns about ExxonMobil's funding of lobby groups that seek to misrepresent the scientific evidence relating to climate change."<ref name=rs20060904b>{{cite web |url=https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/publications/2006/royal-society-exxonmobil/ |title= Royal Society and ExxonMobil |accessdate=April 24, 2009 |publisher=] |date=September 4, 2006}}</ref> Between 2007 and 2015, ExxonMobil gave $1.87 million to Congressional climate change deniers and $454,000 to the ] (ALEC). ExxonMobil denied funding climate denial.<ref>{{cite news |title=ExxonMobil gave millions to climate-denying lawmakers despite pledge |url=http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/15/exxon-mobil-gave-millions-climate-denying-lawmakers |authorlink=Suzanne Goldenberg |first=Suzanne |last=Goldenberg |date=July 15, 2015 |accessdate=October 15, 2015 |newspaper=]}}</ref> ExxonMobil is a member of ALEC's “Enterprise Council“, its corporate leadership board.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=] |date=September 2015 |volume=132 |issue=2 |pages=157–171 |title=The climate responsibilities of industrial carbon producers |first1=Peter C. |last1=Frumhoff |first2=Richard |last2=Heede |first3=Naomi |last3=Oreskes |authorlink3=Naomi Oreskes |doi=10.1007/s10584-015-1472-5 |url=http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-015-1472-5}}</ref>


In May 2008, 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.<ref name=guardian20080528>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/may/28/climatechange.fossilfuels/ |title=Exxon to cut funding to climate change denial groups |access-date=December 23, 2008 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |first=David |last=Adam |date=May 28, 2008}}</ref> In 2008, ExxonMobil funded such organizations<ref>{{cite news |access-date=July 1, 2009 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/jul/01/exxon-mobil-climate-change-sceptics-funding |title=ExxonMobil continuing to fund climate skeptic groups, records show |newspaper=The Guardian |location=UK |date=July 1, 2009 |first=David |last=Adam}}</ref> and was named one of the most prominent promoters of climate change denial.<ref>{{cite news |first=Josh |last=Harkinson |url=https://www.motherjones.com/special-reports/2009/12/dirty-dozen-climate-change-denial |title=The Dirty Dozen of Climate Change Denial |magazine=] |date=December 4, 2009 |access-date=December 21, 2015 |quote=Meet the 12 loudest members of the chorus claiming that global warming is a joke and that {{CO2}} emissions are actually good for you...ExxonMobil, the Michael Jordan of climate change denial, was supposed to have quit the game...Yet corporate records released earlier this year show that the world's largest petroleum company hasn't cut off the cash altogether.}}</ref> According to Brulle in a 2012 '']'' interview, ExxonMobil had ceased funding the climate change counter-movement by 2009.<ref name="frontline20121023"/> According to the environmental advocacy group ], ExxonMobil granted $1 million to climate denial groups in 2014.<ref name=gp20150708>{{cite web |title=Exxon Has Been Lying About Climate Change for Much Longer than We Thought |first=Jesse |last=Coleman |date=July 8, 2015 |publisher=] |access-date=January 26, 2016 |url=http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/exxon-lying-climate-change-much-longer-thought/}}</ref><ref name=csm20150917>{{cite news |newspaper=] |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2015/0917/Exxon-knew-about-climate-change-decades-ago-spent-30M-to-discredit-it |access-date=January 26, 2016 |title=Exxon knew about climate change decades ago, spent $30M to discredit it |first=Lonnie |last=Shekhtman |date=September 17, 2015}}</ref> ExxonMobil granted $10,000 to the ] founded by climate denial advocate, physicist, and environmental scientist ]<ref>{{harvnb|Mann|2013|p=282}}: "ABC News's ''Nightline'' that Singer had admitted to receiving "funding from Exxon, Shell, ARCO, Unocal, and Sun Oil." In a separate piece... ABC News noted that Singer "admits he once accepted an unsolicited check from Exxon for $10,000.""</ref><ref name=Harris>{{cite news |last1=Harris |first1=Dan |first2=Felicia |last2=Biberica |first3=Elizabeth |last3=Stuart |first4=Nils |last4=Kongshaug |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=4506059 |title=Global Warming Denier: Fraud or 'Realist'? |agency=] |date=March 23, 2008 |access-date=January 27, 2016}}</ref> and earlier funded the work of solar physicist ], who said that most global warming is caused by solar variation.<ref name=nyt20150222>{{harvnb|Gillis|Schwartz|2015}}</ref>
== Stockholder activism and public acknowledgement of climate change ==


From 1989 till April 2010, ExxonMobil and its predecessor Mobil purchased regular Thursday advertorials in '']'', '']'', and '']'' that said that the science of climate change was unsettled.<ref name=":7">{{cite news |agency=] |title=Exxon's Uncertainty Campaign in Black and White |url=http://insideclimatenews.org/content/exxons-uncertainty-campaign-black-and-white |date=October 22, 2016 |access-date=January 31, 2016}}</ref> In 2000, responding to the 2000 US ], an ExxonMobil advertorial said "The report's language and logic appear designed to emphasize selective results to convince people that climate change will adversely impact their lives. The report is written as a political document, not an objective summary of the underlying science."{{sfn|The New York Times|2015}} Another 2000 advertorial published in ''The New York Times'' and '']'' entitled "Unsettled Science" said "it is impossible for scientists to attribute the recent small surface temperature increase to human activity."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/705605-xom-nyt-2000-3-23-unsettledscience.html |title=Unsettled Science |agency=ExxonMobil |date=2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Infographic: Climate Science vs. Fossil Fuel Fiction |date=March 16, 2015 |url=http://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/fight-misinformation/infographic-global-warming-climate-science-vs-fossil-fuel-fiction |access-date=January 31, 2016 |publisher=]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |access-date=January 31, 2016 |publisher=] |url=http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/03/exxonmobilquote2000.pdf |title=Climate Science vs. Fossil Fuel Fiction |date=March 2015 |quote=ExxonMobil published an ad in 2000 in ''The New York Times'' and The Wall Street Journal titled "Unsettled Science."}}</ref>
Beginning in 2004, the descendants of ], led mainly by his great-grandchildren, through letters, meetings, and shareholder resolutions, attempted to get ExxonMobil to acknowledge climate change, to abandon climate denial, and to shift towards clean energy.<ref>{{cite news |title=Rockefeller's descendants tell Exxon to face the reality of climate change |first=Stephen |last=Foley |date=October 23, 2011 |accessdate=October 20, 2015 |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/rockefellers-descendants-tell-exxon-to-face-the-reality-of-climate-change-818778.html |newspaper=]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Rockefeller family tried and failed to get ExxonMobil to accept climate change |url=http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/27/rockefeller-family-tried-and-failed-exxonmobil-accept-climate-change |authorlink=Suzanne Goldenberg |first=Suzanne |last=Goldenberg |newspaper=] |location=London |date=March 27, 2015 |accessdate=October 19, 2015}}</ref> In 2007, ExxonMobil for the first time disclosed to stockholders the financial risks to profitability of climate change.<ref name=latimes20151231>{{cite news |title=Big Oil braced for global warming while it fought regulations |first1=Amy |last1=Lieberman |first2=Susanne |last2=Rust |date=December 31, 2015 |url=http://graphics.latimes.com/oil-operations/ |newspaper=] |accessdate=January 24, 2016}}</ref>


ExxonMobil announced in 2008 that it would cut its funding to many of the groups that "divert attention" from the need to find new sources of clean energy, although in 2008 still funded over "two dozen other organisations who question the science of global warming or attack policies to solve the crisis."<ref name="guardian.co.uk">{{cite news |last=Adam |first=David |date=2008-05-28 |title=Exxon to cut funding to climate change denial groups |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/may/28/climatechange.fossilfuels/ |access-date=2008-12-23 |work=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref> A survey carried out by the UK ] found that in 2005 ExxonMobil distributed US$2.9 million to 39 groups that "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence".<ref name="guardian.co.uk" />
On February 13, 2007, ExxonMobil CEO ] acknowledged that the planet was warming while ] 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."<ref name="tillerson">{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/14/business/14exxon.html |title=Exxon Chief Cautions Against Rapid Action to Cut Carbon Emissions |date=February 14, 2007 |newspaper=]| first1=Clifford | last1=Krauss | first2=Jad | last2=Mouawad | accessdate=May 2, 2010}}</ref><ref name="tillerson2">{{cite news | url=http://articles.latimes.com/2007/feb/14/business/fi-altfuels14| title=Topics shift to the environment as oil executives meet in Texas| work=Los Angeles Times| date=February 14, 2007}}</ref>


The ] produced a report titled 'Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air',<ref name="autogenerated2">{{cite web |date=January 2007 |title=Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air – How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco's Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Science |url=http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/exxonmobil-smoke-mirrors-hot.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070410184455/http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/exxonmobil-smoke-mirrors-hot.html |archive-date=10 April 2007 |access-date=14 April 2007 |publisher=]}}</ref> that criticizes ExxonMobil for "] the most sophisticated and most successful disinformation campaign since the tobacco industry" and for "] about $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of ideological and advocacy organizations that manufacture uncertainty on the issue". In 2006, Exxon said that it was no longer going to fund these groups<ref> NBC News January 2007</ref> though that statement has been challenged by Greenpeace.<ref> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070819134355/http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/exxonsecrets-2007|date=19 August 2007}} Greenpeace May 2007</ref>
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 ] emissions.<ref name=investing010414>{{cite news | url=http://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/exxon-mobil-acknowledges-climate-change-risk---you-read-that-correctly-275168 | title=Exxon Mobil Acknowledges Climate Change Risk - You Read That Correctly | work=] | date=1 April 2014| accessdate = 2016-01-15}}</ref>


To investigate how widespread such hidden funding was, senators ], ] and ] wrote to a number of companies. Koch general counsel refused the request and said it would infringe the company's first amendment rights.<ref name="Yuhas 20150313">{{Cite news |last=Yuhas |first=Alan |date=13 March 2015 |title=Koch Industries refuses to comply with US senators' climate investigation |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/13/koch-industries-refuses-senators-climate-investigation |access-date=17 April 2015 |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref>
ExxonMobil is dismissive of the ] movement, writing on ExxonMobil's blog in October, 2014 that fossil fuel divestment was "out of step with reality" and that "to not use fossil fuels is tantamount to not using energy at all."<ref name=rs20150114>{{cite news |last1=Dickinson |first1=Tim |title=The Logic of Divestment: Why We Have to Kiss Off Big Carbon Now |url=http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-logic-of-divestment-why-we-have-to-kiss-off-big-carbon-20150114 |magazine=] |accessdate=January 27, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Some thoughts on divestment |date=October 10, 2014 |first=Ken |last=Cohen |publisher=ExxonMobil |accessdate=January 27, 2016 |url=http://www.exxonmobilperspectives.com/2014/10/10/some-thoughts-on-divestment/}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Exxon Blasts Movement to Divest From Fossil Fuels |first=Ben |last=Geman |magazine=] |accessdate=January 27, 2016 |url=http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/2014/10/13/Exxon-Blasts-Movement-Divest-From-Fossil-Fuels |date=October 13, 2014}}</ref>


=== Funding scientists who are climate change deniers ===
In December 2015, following similar earlier announcements, Exxon noted that if carbon regulations became a requirement, the best approach would be a carbon tax.<ref name=icn311215>{{cite news | url=http://insideclimatenews.org/news/18122015/exxon-mobil-carbon-tax-rhetoric-or-reality-climate-change-rex-tillerson | title= Exxon's Support of a Tax on Carbon: Rhetoric or Reality? | first1 = David | last1 = Hasemyer | first2 = Bob | last2 = Simison | work=] | date= 2015-12-31 | accessdate = 2016-01-15}}</ref>
The ] research project ExxonSecrets,<ref>{{cite web |title=Exxon Secrets |url=http://www.exxonsecrets.org/ |access-date=2008-12-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Monbiot |first=George |date=2006-09-19 |title=The denial industry |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/sep/19/ethicalliving.g2/ |access-date=2008-12-23 |work=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref> as well as various academics,<ref name="merchants of doubt2">{{cite book |author=Naomi Oreskes |title=Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming |title-link=Merchants of Doubt |author2=Erik Conway |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-59691-610-4 |location=US}}</ref><ref name="requiem">{{cite book |last=Hamilton |first=Clive |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BdDTUvcFE1YC&pg=PT137 |title=Requiem for a Species: Why We Resist the Truth about Climate Change |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-84977-498-7 |author-link=Clive Hamilton |access-date=16 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210323031809/https://books.google.com/books?id=BdDTUvcFE1YC&pg=PT137 |archive-date=23 March 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> have linked several scientists who are ]—], ] and ]—to organizations funded by ] and ] for the purpose of promoting global warming denial. These organizations include the ] and ].<ref name="monbiot06">{{cite news |last=Monbiot |first=George |date=19 September 2006 |title=The denial industry |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/sep/19/ethicalliving.g2 |access-date=11 August 2007 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref> Similarly, groups employing global warming deniers, such as the ], have been criticized for their ties to fossil fuel companies.<ref>{{cite news |last=Adam |first=David |date=27 January 2005 |title=Oil firms fund climate change 'denial' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/life/science/story/0,12996,1399585,00.html |access-date=14 April 2007 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref>

On 2 February 2007, ''The Guardian'' stated<ref name="Guardian 2007 Ian Sample"/><ref>{{cite web |date=9 February 2007 |title=Climate Controversy and AEI: Facts and Fictions |url=http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.25586,filter.all/pub_detail.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070413224426/http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.25586%2Cfilter.all/pub_detail.asp |archive-date=13 April 2007 |access-date=14 April 2007 |publisher=] for Public Policy Research}}</ref> that Kenneth Green, a visiting scholar with ], had sent letters<ref>{{cite web |last=Hayward |first=Steven F. |author2=Kenneth Green |date=5 July 2006 |title=AEI Letter to Pf. Schroeder |url=http://websrvr80il.audiovideoweb.com/il80web20037/ThinkProgress/2007/aeiletter.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070208101842/http://websrvr80il.audiovideoweb.com/il80web20037/ThinkProgress/2007/aeiletter.pdf |archive-date=8 February 2007 |access-date=14 April 2007}}</ref> to scientists in the UK and the U.S., offering US$10,000 plus travel expenses and other incidental payments in return for essays with the purpose of "highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the IPCC process", specifically regarding the ].<ref name="Guardian 2007 Ian Sample">{{cite news |last=Sample |first=Ian |date=2 February 2007 |title=Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/feb/02/frontpagenews.climatechange |access-date=2024-10-10 |work=] |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

An analysis conducted by ''The Carbon Brief'' in 2011 found that 9 out of 10 of the most prolific authors who cast doubt on climate change or speak against it had ties to ]. Greenpeace have said that ] invested more than US$50 million in the past 50 years on spreading doubts about climate change.<ref name="ExxonMobil and Koch Industries denial funding">{{cite web |date=2011-05-10 |title=9 out of 10 top climate change deniers linked with Exxon Mobil |url=http://www.zmescience.com/ecology/climate-change-papers-exxon-mobil/}}</ref><ref name="CarbonBrief Study: 9 out of top 10 authors linked to ExxonMobil">{{Cite web |title=Analysing the '900 papers supporting climate scepticism': 9 out of top 10 authors linked to ExxonMobil |url=http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2011/04/900-papers-supporting-climate-scepticism-exxon-links/}}</ref><ref name="Greenpeace Study: Exposing the dirty money behind fake climate science">{{cite web |title=Exposing the dirty money behind fake climate science |url=http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/dirty-money-climate-30032010/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100507150015/http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/dirty-money-climate-30032010/ |archive-date=7 May 2010 |access-date=17 November 2023}}</ref>

== Lobbying against emissions regulations ==
], Exxon and ExxonMobil ] from 1993 to 2006, was one of the most outspoken executives in the United States against regulation to curtail ],<ref name="wsj20010829">{{cite news|first=Thaddeus |last=Herrick |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB999035936679805198 |title=Exxon CEO Lee Raymond's Stance On Global Warming Causes a Stir |newspaper=] |date= August 29, 2001}}</ref>

In February 2001, the early days of the administration of US President ], ExxonMobil's head lobbyist in Washington wrote to the ] urging that "Clinton/Gore carry-overs with aggressive agendas" be kept out of "any decisional activities" on the US delegation to the working committees of the ]' ] (IPCC), and recommending their replacement by scientists critical of the prevailing scientific consensus on climate change. The chairman of the IPCC, climate scientist ], was replaced by ], who was seen as more industry-friendly.<ref name=icn20151022>{{cite news |title=Exxon: The Road Not Taken, Exxon Sowed Doubt about Climate Science for Decades by Stressing Uncertainty |agency=] |date=October 22, 2015 |access-date=December 22, 2015 |first1=David |last1=Hasemyer |first2=John H. |last2=Cushman Jr. |url=http://insideclimatenews.org/news/22102015/Exxon-Sowed-Doubt-about-Climate-Science-for-Decades-by-Stressing-Uncertainty}}</ref><ref name=NewScientist20020419>{{cite web |title=Top climate scientist ousted |date=April 19, 2002 |magazine=] | first=Fred | last=Pearce | url=https://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2191 | access-date=July 24, 2007}}</ref><ref name=guardian20020420>{{cite news |title=US and Oil Lobby Oust Climate Change Scientist |date=April 20, 2002 |access-date=January 29, 2016 |first=Julian |last=Borger |url=https://www.theguardian.com/bush/story/0,7369,687650,00.html |newspaper=The Guardian | location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/documents/Exxon%20Lobbyist%27s%20Memo%20to%20the%20White%20House%20%282001%29.pdf |first=Arthur G. "Randy" |last=Randol |title=Regarding: Bush Team for IPCC Negotiations |date=February 6, 2001 |access-date=January 30, 2016 |archive-date=September 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200901153147/https://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/documents/Exxon%20Lobbyist%27s%20Memo%20to%20the%20White%20House%20%282001%29.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> A spokesperson for ExxonMobil said the company did not have a position on the chairmanship of the IPCC.<ref>{{cite news |date=April 19, 2002 |title=Climate scientist ousted |agency=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1940117.stm |access-date=January 30, 2016}}</ref>

On June 14, 2005, ExxonMobil announced they would hire ], four days after Cooney resigned as chief of staff of the ] in the Bush White House, two days after the non-profit ] released documents which showed that Cooney had edited government scientific reports so as to downplay the certainty of the science behind the ].<ref>{{cite news |title=Former Bush Aide Who Edited Reports Is Hired by Exxon |author-link=Andrew Revkin |first=Andrew |last=Revkin |date=June 15, 2005 |access-date=February 2, 2016 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/15/politics/former-bush-aide-who-edited-reports-is-hired-by-exxon.html |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Ex-Bush Aide Plans to Join ExxonMobil |agency=] |date=June 15, 2005 |access-date=February 2, 2016 |newspaper=] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/14/AR2005061401551.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Climate Change Research Distorted and Suppressed |year=2005 |access-date=February 3, 2016 |publisher=] |url=http://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/center-science-and-democracy/promoting-scientific-integrity/climate-change.html}}</ref> ] wrote in ''The New York Times'', "Of all the people the Bush team would let edit its climate reports, we have a guy who first worked for the oil lobby denying climate change, with no science background, then went back to work for Exxon. Does it get any more intellectually corrupt than that?"<ref>{{cite news |last=Friedman |first=Thomas L. |author-link=Thomas Friedman |title=How Many Scientists? |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 28, 2007 |access-date=February 2, 2016 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/28/opinion/28friedman.html}}</ref>

Some researches say that ExxonMobil's strategy succeeded to delay the world's response to climate change,<ref>{{harvnb|Van den Hove|Le Menestrel|De Bettignies|2002}}: In terms of delaying international and national actions on climate change, there is no doubt that ExxonMobil's strategy succeeded.</ref> others are not sure if company's different behavior would have brought a different outcome.<ref name=nyt170406/>

== Acknowledgement of climate change ==
Internal ExxonMobil documents showed that after the company issued its first press statement acknowledging that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change in 2006, ExxonMobil CEO ] and other company executives sought to diminish public concern about climate change by casting doubt on the severity of climate change impacts.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Matthews |first1=Christopher M. |last2=Eaton |first2=Collin |date=September 14, 2023 |title=Inside Exxon's Strategy to Downplay Climate Change |url=https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/exxon-climate-change-documents-e2e9e6af |access-date=September 14, 2023 |work=The Wall Street Journal |publisher=News Corp}}</ref>

In 2007, ExxonMobil for the first time disclosed to stockholders the financial risks to profitability of climate change.<ref name="latimes20151231">{{cite news |title=Big Oil braced for global warming while it fought regulations |first1=Amy |last1=Lieberman |first2=Susanne |last2=Rust |date=December 31, 2015 |url=http://graphics.latimes.com/oil-operations/ |newspaper=] |access-date=January 24, 2016}}</ref> Even that, however, came only in the form of boilerplate language in their ] ] citing the threat to operations and earnings posed by "laws and regulations related to environmental or energy security matters, including those addressing alternative energy sources and the risks of global climate change"<ref>{{cite web|title=ExxonMobil: FORM 10-K: ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the fiscal year ended|url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/34088/000119312508041781/d10k.htm|publisher=]|access-date=27 March 2017|date=31 December 2007}}</ref> rather than acknowledging the risks posed by climate change itself or by the company's contribution to it.<ref name="Latham2009">{{cite journal|last1=Latham|first1=Mark|title=Environmental Liabilities and the Federal Securities Laws: A Proposal for Improved Disclosure of Climate Change Related Risks|journal=Environmental Law|date=Summer 2009|volume=39|issue=3|page=647|url=http://elawreview.org/articles/volume-39/issue-39-3/environmental-liabilities-and-the-federal-securities-laws-a-proposal-for-improved-disclosure-of-climate-change-related-risks/|access-date=27 March 2017}}</ref> In January 2007, ExxonMobil vice president for ] Kenneth Cohen said "we know enough now—or, society knows enough now—that the risk is serious and action should be taken".<ref name="CohenJan2007" /> On February 13, ExxonMobil CEO ] acknowledged that the planet was warming while ] 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."<ref name="tillerson">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/14/business/14exxon.html |title=Exxon Chief Cautions Against Rapid Action to Cut Carbon Emissions |date=February 14, 2007 |newspaper=The New York Times| first1=Clifford | last1=Krauss | first2=Jad | last2=Mouawad | access-date=May 2, 2010}}</ref><ref name="tillerson2">{{cite news | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-feb-14-fi-altfuels14-story.html| title=Topics shift to the environment as oil executives meet in Texas| work=Los Angeles Times| date=February 14, 2007}}</ref>

In April 2014, ExxonMobil released a report publicly acknowledging climate change risk for the first time. ExxonMobil predicted that a rising global population, increasing living standards and increasing energy access would result in lower ].<ref name=":10">{{cite news | url=http://www.ibtimes.com/exxon-mobil-acknowledges-climate-change-risk-business-first-time-1565836 | title=Exxon Mobil Acknowledges Climate Change Risk To Business For First Time | work=] | date=1 April 2014| access-date = 2016-01-15}}</ref>

ExxonMobil is dismissive of the ] movement, writing on ExxonMobil's blog in October, 2014 that fossil fuel divestment was "out of step with reality" and that "to not use fossil fuels is tantamount to not using energy at all."<ref name=rs20150114>{{cite news |last1=Dickinson |first1=Tim |title=The Logic of Divestment: Why We Have to Kiss Off Big Carbon Now |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-logic-of-divestment-why-we-have-to-kiss-off-big-carbon-20150114 |magazine=] |access-date=January 27, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Some thoughts on divestment |date=October 10, 2014 |first=Ken |last=Cohen |publisher=ExxonMobil |access-date=January 27, 2016 |url=http://www.exxonmobilperspectives.com/2014/10/10/some-thoughts-on-divestment/}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Exxon Blasts Movement to Divest From Fossil Fuels |first=Ben |last=Geman |magazine=] |access-date=January 27, 2016 |url=http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/2014/10/13/Exxon-Blasts-Movement-Divest-From-Fossil-Fuels |date=October 13, 2014}}</ref>

Exxon routinely uses an internal ] on {{CO2}} in its business planning.<ref name="econo">{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/11/economist-explains-12 |title=The Economist explains: Why ExxonMobil would support a carbon tax |newspaper=] |date=November 11, 2015 |access-date=January 30, 2016 |quote=Yet since 2007 ExxonMobil, the world's biggest publicly listed oil company, is proposing a carbon tax, and has already put a shadow price on each tonne of {{CO2}} it emits... a robust carbon price can make it easier to decide where to invest for the future. Like ExxonMobil, many of the oil companies make investment decisions based on proxy carbon prices.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cdp.net/CDPResults/companies-carbon-pricing-2013.pdf |title=Use of internal carbon price by companies as incentive and strategic planning tool |date=December 2013 |access-date=May 5, 2016 |publisher=] |quote=In 2013, 29 companies - based or operating in the US - disclosed that that they use an internal price of carbon in their business planning...For example, ExxonMobil is assuming a cost of $60 per metric ton by 2030.}}</ref> In December 2015, following similar earlier announcements, Exxon noted that if carbon regulations became a requirement, the best approach would be a carbon tax.<ref name=icn311215>{{cite news | url=http://insideclimatenews.org/news/18122015/exxon-mobil-carbon-tax-rhetoric-or-reality-climate-change-rex-tillerson | title= Exxon's Support of a Tax on Carbon: Rhetoric or Reality? | first1 = David | last1 = Hasemyer | first2 = Bob | last2 = Simison | work=] | date= 2015-12-31 | access-date = 2016-01-15}}</ref>


== State and federal investigations == == State and federal investigations ==


<!-- Early ideas (2012-15): RICO / US AG -->
On October 14, 2015, ] and ], Democratic members of ] from California, wrote to the ] requesting an investigation into whether ExxonMobil violated any federal laws by "failing to disclose truthful information" about climate change.<ref>{{cite news |title=Congressmen want probe of Exxon Mobil 'failing to disclose' climate change data |first1=Michael |last1=Phillis |first2=Susanne |last2=Rust |newspaper=] |accessdate=October 22, 2015 |url=http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-investigation-exxonmobil-20151015-story.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Exxon's climate change denial warrants federal inquiry, congressmen say |newspaper=] |accessdate=October 22, 2015 |authorlink=Suzanne Goldenberg |first=Suzanne |last=Goldenberg |date=October 16, 2015 |url=http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/16/exxonmobil-congress-climate-change-federal-investigation}}</ref> On October 30, 2015, more than 40 leading US environmental and social justice organizations wrote to ] ] requesting a federal investigation into Exxon Mobil deceiving the American public about the risks of climate change.<ref>{{cite news |title=Exxon Mobil Accused of Misleading Public on Climate Change Risks |first1=Justin |last1=Gillis |first2=John |last2=Schwartz |date=October 30, 2015 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/science/exxon-mobil-accused-of-misleading-public-on-climate-change-risks.html |newspaper=] |accessdate=January 22, 2016}}</ref>
As early as 2012 the idea of using ] against the fossil fuel industry, on the model of ], was being considered by some environmental groups.<ref name="reuters300616">{{cite news
| date= June 30, 2016
| title= U.S. Virgin Islands to withdraw subpoena in climate probe into Exxon
| work= Reuters
| first1= Terry
| last1= Wade
| url= https://www.reuters.com/article/us-exxon-mobil-climatechange/u-s-virgin-islands-to-withdraw-subpoena-in-climate-probe-into-exxon-idUSKCN0ZF2ZP
| access-date= March 18, 2018
}}</ref>
In May 2015 ] put forward the suggestion in ''The Washington Post''.<ref>{{cite news
| newspaper= The Washington Post
| access-date= February 3, 2016
| author-link= Sheldon Whitehouse
| first= Sheldon
| last= Whitehouse
| date= May 29, 2015
| url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-fossil-fuel-industrys-campaign-to-mislead-the-american-people/2015/05/29/04a2c448-0574-11e5-8bda-c7b4e9a8f7ac_story.html
| title= The fossil-fuel industry's campaign to mislead the American people
}}</ref>
Later the same year, on October 14, ] and ] wrote to the ] (US AG) requesting an investigation into whether ExxonMobil violated any federal laws by "failing to disclose truthful information" about climate change.<ref>{{cite news
| title= Congressmen want probe of ExxonMobil 'failing to disclose' climate change data
| first1= Michael
| last1= Phillis
| first2= Susanne
| last2= Rust
| newspaper=]
| access-date= October 22, 2015
| url= http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-investigation-exxonmobil-20151015-story.html
}}</ref><ref name="Guardian 2015 Goldenberg">{{cite news |last=Goldenberg |first=Suzanne |author-link=Suzanne Goldenberg |title=Exxon's climate change denial warrants federal inquiry, congressmen say |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/16/exxonmobil-congress-climate-change-federal-investigation |access-date=2024-10-10 |work=] |date=2015-10-16}}</ref>
Asked about the letter by '']'', an Exxon spokesperson said "This is complete bullshit. We have a 30 year continuous uninterrupted history of researching climate change..."<ref name="Guardian 2015 Goldenberg"/>
On October 30, 2015, more than 40 leading US environmental and social justice organizations also wrote to the US AG requesting a federal investigation into ExxonMobil deceiving the public about climate change.<ref>{{harvnb|Gillis|Schwartz|2015
}}: More than 40 of the nation's leading environmental and social justice groups demanded a federal investigation of ExxonMobil on Friday, accusing the huge oil and gas company of deceiving the American public about the ] to protect its profits.</ref>
Former ] ] and all three ] primary candidates for ] called for a ] investigation.<ref>{{cite news
| title= Gore Calls for Exxon Mobil Inquiry on Climate Change
| first= Leslie
| last= Picker
| date= November 3, 2015
| access-date= February 5, 2016
| newspaper=The New York Times
| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/business/dealbook/gore-calls-for-exxon-mobil-inquiry-on-climate-change.html
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| title= Hillary joins calls for federal probe of Exxon climate change research
| first= Timothy
| last= Cama
| date= October 29, 2015
| newspaper= ]
}}</ref>


<!-- 2015: challenges to Exxon -->
The ] is investigating whether ExxonMobil misled the public or stock holders regarding the impact of climate change.<ref>{{cite news |title=Exxon Mobil Investigated for Possible Climate Change Lies by New York Attorney General |first1=Justin |last1=Gillis |first2=Clifford |last2=Kraussnov |date=November 5, 2015 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/06/science/exxon-mobil-under-investigation-in-new-york-over-climate-statements.html |newspaper=] |accessdate=November 6, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=New York is investigating Exxon Mobil for allegedly misleading the public about climate change |first=Chris |last=Mooney |date=November 5, 2015 |accessdate=November 6, 2015 |newspaper=] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/11/05/exxonmobil-under-investigation-for-misleading-the-public-about-climate-change/}}</ref> The ] in New York state law gives the state Attorney General broad powers to investigate financial fraud.<ref>{{cite news |title=Did Exxon Mobil Lie To The Public About The Risks Of Climate Change? |date=November 6, 2015 |first=Geoff |last=Brumfiel |accessdate=January 22, 2016 |publisher=] |work=] |url=http://www.npr.org/2015/11/06/454970598/did-exxon-mobil-lie-to-the-public-about-the-risks-of-climate-change}}</ref>
On October 29, Whitehouse, ], ] and ] issued a letter to Exxon questioning their donations to ], a group which funds climate change denial.<ref
name= "Cushman"
>{{cite news
| last1= Cushman
| first1= John Jr
| title= U.S. Senators Press Exxon for Answers on Climate Denial Funding
| url= http://insideclimatenews.org/news/29102015/senators-press-Exxon-answers-funding-climate-denial-donors-trust-sheldon-whitehouse-elizabeth-warren
| access-date= 2016-02-06
| publisher= InsideClimate News
| date= October 29, 2015
}}</ref>
Subsequently, in January 2016, ], law professor at the ] in ], called for the revocation of ExxonMobil's ].<ref>{{cite news
| title= Revoke ExxonMobil's Corporate Charter for Climate Destruction and Cover-Up
| date= January 12, 2016
| author-link= Marjorie Cohn
| first= Marjorie
| last= Cohn
| publisher= ]
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| work= Huffington Post
| url= http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marjorie-cohn/revoke-exxonmobils-corpor_b_8971884.html
| title= Revoke ExxonMobil's Corporate Charter for Climate Destruction and Cover-Up
| date= January 13, 2016
| access-date= February 1, 2016
| author-link= Marjorie Cohn
| first= Marjorie
| last= Cohn
}}</ref>


<!-- States' actions -->
Following published reports, based on internal Exxon documents, suggesting that during the 1980s and 1990s Exxon used climate research in its business planning but simultaneously argued publicly that the science was unsettled, ] ] is investigating whether Exxon Mobil lied to the public or shareholders about the risk to its business from climate change, possible ], and violations of ]s. ExxonMobil denied wrongdoing.<ref>{{cite news |first=Ivan |last=Penn |title=California to investigate whether Exxon Mobil lied about climate-change risks |url=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-exxon-global-warming-20160120-story.html |accessdate=January 28, 2016 |newspaper=] |date=January 20, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=California Said to Target Exxon in Climate Inquiry |first=John |last=Schwartz |date=January 20, 2016 |accessdate=January 28, 2016 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/science/california-said-to-target-exxon-in-climate-inquiry.html |newspaper=]}}</ref>
Still in 2015, the ] launched an investigation whether ExxonMobil's statements to investors were consistent with the company's decades of extensive scientific research.<ref
name= " nyt20151105"
>{{cite news
| title= Exxon Mobil Investigated for Possible Climate Change Lies by New York Attorney General
| first1= Justin
| last1= Gillis
| first2= Clifford
| last2= Kraussnov
| date= November 5, 2015
| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/06/science/exxon-mobil-under-investigation-in-new-york-over-climate-statements.html
| newspaper=The New York Times
| access-date= November 6, 2015
}}</ref><ref name=":11">{{cite news
| title= New York is investigating ExxonMobil for allegedly misleading the public about climate change
| first= Chris
| last= Mooney
| date= November 5, 2015
| access-date= November 6, 2015
| newspaper= The Washington Post
| url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/11/05/exxonmobil-under-investigation-for-misleading-the-public-about-climate-change/
}}</ref>
In October 2018, based on this investigation, ], which claimed the company defrauded shareholders by downplaying the risks of climate change for its businesses.<ref
name= "Times 10-24-18"
>{{cite news
| last1= Schwartz
| first1= John
| title= New York Sues Exxon Mobil, Saying It Deceived Shareholders on Climate Change
| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/climate/exxon-lawsuit-climate-change.html
| access-date= 24 October 2018
| work= The New York Times
| date= 24 October 2018
}}</ref>


Following published reports, based on internal Exxon documents, suggesting that during the 1980s and 1990s Exxon used climate research in its business planning but simultaneously argued publicly that the science was unsettled, the ] began investigating whether ExxonMobil lied to the public or shareholders about the risk to its business from climate change, possible ], and violations of ]s. ExxonMobil denied wrongdoing.<ref>{{cite news
== Other climate change related activities ==
| first= Ivan
| last= Penn
| title= California to investigate whether Exxon Mobil lied about climate-change risks
| url= http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-exxon-global-warming-20160120-story.html
| access-date= January 28, 2016
| newspaper=]
| date= January 20, 2016
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| title= California Said to Target Exxon in Climate Inquiry
| first= John
| last= Schwartz
| date= January 20, 2016
| access-date= January 28, 2016
| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/science/california-said-to-target-exxon-in-climate-inquiry.html
| newspaper=The New York Times
}}</ref>


On March 29, 2016, the attorneys general of Massachusetts and the ] announced investigations. Seventeen attorneys general were cooperating on investigations. Exxon said the investigations were "politically motivated."<ref>{{cite news
Beginning in 2002, ExxonMobil has invested up to US$100m over a ten-year period to establish the Global Climate and Energy Project at ], which "would focus on technologies that could provide energy without adding to a buildup of greenhouse gases".<ref name="Revkin2002">{{cite news|last1=Revkin |first1=Andrew C. |authorlink=Andrew Revkin |title=Exxon-Led Group Is Giving A Climate Grant to Stanford|accessdate=26 October 2015|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/21/us/exxon-led-group-is-giving-a-climate-grant-to-stanford.html |newspaper=] |date=November 21, 2002}}</ref><ref>. Retrieved December 27, 2015.</ref>
| title= Exxon Mobil Climate Change Inquiry in New York Gains Allies
| first= John
| last= Schwartz
| date= March 29, 2016
| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/science/new-york-climate-change-inquiry-into-exxon-adds-prosecutors.html
| newspaper=The New York Times
| access-date= April 15, 2016
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| date= March 29, 2016
| title= Probe of Exxon's climate change disclosures expands
| work=]
| first1= Valerie
| last1= Volcovici
| first2= Sarah N.
| last2= Lynch
| url= https://www.reuters.com/article/us-massachusetts-climatechange-exxon-mob-idUSKCN0WV24K
| access-date= April 15, 2016
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| title= Investigation broadens into whether Exxon Mobil misled public, investors on climate change
| first= Brady
| last= Dennis
| date= March 31, 2016
| access-date= April 15, 2016
| url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/03/31/investigation-broadens-into-whether-exxon-mobil-misled-public-investors-on-climate-change/
| newspaper= The Washington Post
}}</ref>
In June, the attorney general of the ] agreed to withdraw the subpoena,<ref
name=reuters300616
/> and ExxonMobil began an action suing the ] ].<ref>{{cite news
| first= David
| last= Hasemyer
| date= November 5, 2015
| title= Exxon Sues a Second Attorney General To Fight Off Climate Fraud Probe
| url= http://insideclimatenews.org/news/16062016/exxon-sues-massachusetts-attorney-general-climate-change-fraud-investigation
| access-date= June 29, 2016
| agency= ]
}}</ref>
In 2019 the ] found in favor of the Massachusetts attorney general and allowed their case against Exxon to move forward.<ref
name= "insideclimatenews_Hasemyer_20190107"
>{{Cite web
| last = Hasemyer
| first = David
| author-link= David Hasemyer
| title = U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Block Exxon Climate Fraud Investigation
| work = InsideClimate News
| access-date = January 7, 2019
| date = January 7, 2019
| url = https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07012019/exxon-climate-fraud-investigation-supreme-court-ruling-massachusetts-attorney-general-healey
}}</ref> As a result of that decision, Exxon can no longer withhold records that the AG needs for their investigation into whether Exxon concealed that they were cognizant of the fossil fuels contributing to climate change and knowingly misled both the public and their own investors.<ref name="insideclimatenews_Hasemyer_20190107"/>


==Relations with the Rockefeller family==
== Selected ExxonMobil climate research collaborations ==
Beginning in 2004, the descendants of ], led mainly by his great-grandchildren, through letters, meetings, and shareholder resolutions, attempted to get ExxonMobil to acknowledge climate change, to abandon climate denial, and to shift towards clean energy.<ref>{{cite news |title=Rockefeller's descendants tell Exxon to face the reality of climate change |first=Stephen |last=Foley |date=October 23, 2011 |access-date=October 20, 2015 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/rockefellers-descendants-tell-exxon-to-face-the-reality-of-climate-change-818778.html |newspaper=]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Rockefeller family tried and failed to get ExxonMobil to accept climate change |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/27/rockefeller-family-tried-and-failed-exxonmobil-accept-climate-change |author-link=Suzanne Goldenberg |first=Suzanne |last=Goldenberg |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |date=March 27, 2015 |access-date=October 19, 2015}}</ref> In 2013, responding to a shareholder resolution calling for emissions reductions, CEO Rex Tillerson asked, "What good is it to save the planet if humanity suffers?"<ref>{{cite news |title=Exxon CEO concerned about world's poor? Tillerson says cutting oil use to fight climate change would make poverty reduction harder |first=David |last=Koenig |agency=] |date=May 30, 2013 |access-date=February 5, 2016 |newspaper=] |location=] |url=http://business.financialpost.com/news/energy/exxon-rex-tillerson}}</ref>


In March 2016 the Rockefeller Family Fund announced plans to "eliminate holdings" of ExxonMobil.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Wade|first1=Terry|last2=Driver|first2=Anna|title=Rockefeller Family Fund hits Exxon, divests from fossil fuels|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rockefeller-exxon-mobil-investments/rockefeller-family-fund-hits-exxon-divests-from-fossil-fuels-idUSKCN0WP266|newspaper=Reuters|access-date=March 18, 2018|date=2016-03-24}}</ref> The ] and the Rockefeller Family Fund both backed reports suggesting that ExxonMobil knew more about the threat of global warming than it had disclosed. ], grandson of ] and president of the Rockefeller Family Fund, said that the "...company seems to be morally bankrupt." ], daughter of former Senator ], said, "What we would hope from Exxon is that they would admit what they've done -- these decades of denial..."<ref name=CBS1 /> In November 2016 ExxonMobil accused the ] of masterminding a conspiracy against the company.<ref name=CBS1>{{cite news|title=Rockefeller descendants speak out against company to which they owe their prosperity|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rockefeller-family-feud-with-exxon-mobil-fossil-fuels-global-warming-climate-change/|access-date=February 7, 2018|work=CBS News|date=December 2, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/science/exxon-mobil-rockefellers-climate-change.html |title=Exxon Mobil Accuses the Rockefellers of a Climate Conspiracy|work=The New York Times|date=21 November 2016|last1=Schwartz|first1=John}}</ref>
* {{cite journal |last1=Garvey |first1=Edward A. |last2=Prahl |first2=Fred |last3=Nazimek |first3=Kenneth |last4=Shaw |first4=Henry |title=Exxon global CO2 measurement system |journal=IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement |volume=IM-31 |number=1 |pages=32-36 |date=March 1982 |doi=10.1109/TIM.1982.6312509 |url=http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6312509&isnumber=6312497}}

Kaiser wrote in December 2016, "Our criticism carries a certain historical irony. John D. Rockefeller founded ], and ExxonMobil is Standard Oil's largest direct descendant. In a sense we were turning against the company where most of the Rockefeller family's wealth was created."<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kaiser|first1=David|last2=Wasserman|first2=Lee|title=The Rockefeller Family Fund vs. Exxon|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/12/08/the-rockefeller-family-fund-vs-exxon/|journal=The New York Review of Books|access-date=March 18, 2018|date=2016-12-08|volume=63 |issue=19 }}</ref>

== Other climate change activities ==
Beginning in 2002, ExxonMobil has invested up to US$100m over a ten-year period to establish the Global Climate and Energy Project at ], which "would focus on technologies that could provide energy without adding to a buildup of greenhouse gases".<ref name="Revkin2002">{{cite news |last1=Revkin |first1= Andrew C. |author-link=Andrew Revkin |title= Exxon-Led Group Is Giving A Climate Grant to Stanford |access-date= 26 October 2015 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/21/us/exxon-led-group-is-giving-a-climate-grant-to-stanford.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date= November 21, 2002}}</ref><ref>. Retrieved December 27, 2015.</ref> According to the ], "The funding of academic research activity has provided the corporation legitimacy, while it actively funds ideological and advocacy organizations to conduct a disinformation campaign."<ref>{{harvnb|Union of Concerned Scientists|2007}}</ref>

== Board shakeup ==

In 2021 hedge fund ], a critic of ExxonMobil's climate strategy, seated three board members with backing from major institutional investors.<ref name="Board-Reuters1">{{cite news |last1=Hiller |first1=Jennifer |last2=Herbst-bayliss |first2=Svea |title=Exxon loses board seats to activist hedge fund in landmark climate vote |url=https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/shareholder-activism-reaches-milestone-exxon-board-vote-nears-end-2021-05-26/ |access-date=June 1, 2021 |work=Reuters |date=May 26, 2021}}</ref><ref name="Board-CNN1">{{cite news |last1=Egan |first1=Matt |last2=Benveniste |first2=Alexis |title=Activist investor ousts at least two Exxon directors in historic win for pro-climate campaign |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/26/business/exxon-annual-meeting-climate-oil/index.html |access-date=June 1, 2021 |work=CNN.com |date=May 26, 2021}}</ref><ref name="Board-Reuters2">{{cite news |last1=Hiller |first1=Jennifer |last2=Herbst-bayliss |first2=Svea |title=Engine No. 1 extends gains with a third seat on Exxon board |url=https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/engine-no-1-win-third-seat-exxon-board-based-preliminary-results-2021-06-02/|access-date=July 2, 2021 |work=Reuters |date=June 2, 2021}}</ref> Ric Marshall, executive director at ESG Research at MSCI, said, "It shows not just that there is more seriousness apparent in the thinking among investors about climate change, it's a rebuff of the whole attitude of the Exxon board."<ref name="Board-Reuters1" />


==See also== ==See also==
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==References== ==References==
{{Reflist|30em}} {{Reflist|30em}}


==Bibliography== === Sources ===
* {{cite news |title=Exxon Believed Deep Dive Into Climate Research Would Protect Its Business |first1=Neela |last1=Banerjee |first2=Lisa |last2=Song |first3=David |last3=Hasemyer |date=September 17, 2015 |url=http://insideclimatenews.org/news/16092015/exxon-believed-deep-dive-into-climate-research-would-protect-its-business |agency=] |accessdate=January 25, 2016 |year=2015a |ref=harv}} * {{cite news |title=Exxon's Own Research Confirmed Fossil Fuels' Role in Global Warming Decades Ago |first1=Neela |last1=Banerjee |first2=Lisa |last2=Song |first3=David |last3=Hasemyer |date=September 16, 2015a |url=http://insideclimatenews.org/news/15092015/Exxons-own-research-confirmed-fossil-fuels-role-in-global-warming |agency=] |access-date=October 14, 2015}}
* {{cite news |title=Exxon's Own Research Confirmed Fossil Fuels' Role in Global Warming Decades Ago |first1=Neela |last1=Banerjee |first2=Lisa |last2=Song |first3=David |last3=Hasemyer |date=September 16, 2015 |url=http://insideclimatenews.org/news/15092015/Exxons-own-research-confirmed-fossil-fuels-role-in-global-warming |agency=] |accessdate=October 14, 2015 |year=2015b |ref=harv}} * {{cite news |title=Exxon Believed Deep Dive Into Climate Research Would Protect Its Business |first1=Neela |last1=Banerjee |first2=Lisa |last2=Song |first3=David |last3=Hasemyer |date=September 17, 2015b |url=http://insideclimatenews.org/news/16092015/exxon-believed-deep-dive-into-climate-research-would-protect-its-business |agency=] |access-date=January 25, 2016}}
* {{cite news |title=Investigation Finds Exxon Ignored Its Own Early Climate Change Warnings |date=September 16, 2015 |first=Jason M. |last=Breslow |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/environment/investigation-finds-exxon-ignored-its-own-early-climate-change-warnings/ |publisher=] |work=] |access-date=October 14, 2015 }}
* {{cite news |title=Exxon Mobil Accused of Misleading Public on Climate Change Risks |first1=Justin |last1=Gillis |first2=John |last2=Schwartz |date=October 30, 2015 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/science/exxon-mobil-accused-of-misleading-public-on-climate-change-risks.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=January 22, 2016 }}
* {{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/08/exxon-climate-change-1981-climate-denier-funding |title=Exxon knew of climate change in 1981, email says – but it funded deniers for 27 more years |date=July 8, 2015 |access-date=October 15, 2015 |newspaper=The Guardian |author-link=Suzanne Goldenberg |first=Suzanne |last=Goldenberg }} Reprinted as {{cite news |title=Exxon Knew About Global Warming More Than 30 Years Ago |author-link=Suzanne Goldenberg |first=Suzanne |last=Goldenberg |date=July 9, 2015 |magazine=] |access-date=January 30, 2016 |url=https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/07/exxon-climate-change-email }}
* {{cite news |title=Exxon Knew about Climate Change almost 40 years ago |first=Shannon |last=Hall |date=October 26, 2015 |access-date=February 4, 2016 |url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-about-climate-change-almost-40-years-ago/ |magazine=] }}
* {{cite news |title=How Exxon went from leader to skeptic on climate change research |first1=Katie |last1=Jennings |first2=Dino |last2=Grandoni |first3=Susanne |last3=Rust |date=October 23, 2015 |url=http://graphics.latimes.com/exxon-research/ |newspaper=] |access-date=January 24, 2016 }}
* {{cite news |newspaper=] |url=http://graphics.latimes.com/exxon-arctic/ |title=What Exxon knew about the Earth's melting Arctic |first1=Sara |last1=Jerving |first2=Katie |last2=Jennings |first3=Masako Melissa |last3=Hirsch |first4=Susanne |last4=Rust |date=October 9, 2015 |access-date=October 21, 2015 }}
* {{cite news |newspaper=] |title=Did oil giant ExxonMobil know about climate change in 1981? |first=Ian |last=Johnston |date=July 8, 2015 |access-date=January 30, 2016 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/did-oil-giant-exxonmobil-know-about-climate-change-in-1981-10376666.html }}
* {{cite book |last=Mann |first=Michael E. |title=The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines |isbn=978-0231526388 |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2013 }}
* {{cite web |last=Mann |first=Michael E. |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-e-mann/doubling-down-on-denial-and-deceit_b_8163952.html |title=Doubling Down on Denial and Deceit |newspaper=] |access-date=January 30, 2016 |date=September 21, 2015 }}
* {{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/10/opinion/exxons-climate-concealment.html |date=October 9, 2015 |access-date=February 2, 2016 |title=Exxon's Climate Concealment |author-link=Naomi Oreskes |last=Oreskes |first=Naomi |newspaper=The New York Times }}
* {{cite news |title=Smoke Mirrors & Hot Air |date=February 2007 |url=http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/global_warming/exxon_report.pdf |agency=] |access-date=October 14, 2015 |ref={{harvid|Union of Concerned Scientists|2007}}}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Van den Hove |first1=Sybille |first2=Marc |last2=Le Menestrel |first3=Henri-Claude |last3=De Bettignies |title=The oil industry and climate change: strategies and ethical dilemmas |journal=Climate Policy |volume=2 |number=1 |year=2002 |pages=3–18 |doi=10.3763/cpol.2002.0202 |bibcode=2002CliPo...2....3V |s2cid=219594585 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228892927 }}
* {{cite news |title=Exxon Arctic Drilling Benefitting From Global Warming: Oil Company Denied Climate Change Science While Factoring It Into Arctic Operations, Report Shows |first=Elizabeth |last=Whitman |date=October 10, 2015 |url=http://www.ibtimes.com/exxon-arctic-drilling-benefitting-global-warming-oil-company-denied-climate-change-2136118 |newspaper=] |access-date=October 21, 2015}}

==== Select ExxonMobil documents ====
* {{cite web |title=The Greenhouse Effect |first=James F. |last=Black |url=https://archive.org/download/aQwayback/exxon/James%20Black%201977%20Presentation.pdf |date=June 6, 1978 |access-date=January 30, 2016 |publisher=Exxon }}
* {{cite web |title={{CO2}} 'Greenhouse' effect |publisher=] |first=M. B. |last=Glaser |date=November 12, 1982 |access-date=February 4, 2016 |url=https://archive.org/download/aQwayback/exxon/1982%20Exxon%20Primer%20on%20CO2%20Greenhouse%20Effect.pdf}}
* {{cite web |publisher=Exxon |first=Duane G. |last=Levine |title=Potential Enhanced Greenhouse Effects: Status and Outlook, Presentation to the Board of Directors of Exxon Corporation |date=February 22, 1989 |url=https://archive.org/download/aQwayback/exxon/Board%20Presentation%20Feb%2022%201989.pdf |access-date=February 1, 2016}}
* {{cite web |title=Exxon Research and Engineering Company's Technological Forecast {{CO2}} Greenhouse Effect |first1=Henry |last1=Shaw |first2=P. P. |last2=McCall |url=https://archive.org/download/aQwayback/exxon/Technological%20Forecast%20on%20CO2%20Greenhouse%20Effect%201980.pdf |publisher=] |access-date=February 1, 2016 |date=December 8, 1980}}

==== Timelines ====
* {{cite news |title=A Range of Opinions on Climate Change at Exxon Mobil |date=November 6, 2015 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/06/science/exxon-mobil-global-warming-statements-climate-change.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=January 24, 2016 |ref={{harvid|The New York Times|2015}}}}
* {{cite news|title=Exxon's Climate Denial History: A Timeline; A review of Exxon's knowledge and subsequent denial of climate change|url=https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/global-warming/exxon-and-the-oil-industry-knew-about-climate-change/exxons-climate-denial-history-a-timeline/|publisher=]|access-date=July 31, 2020|ref={{harvid|Greenpeace|2016|}}}}
* {{cite news |title=The Long Tale of Exxon and Climate Change |date=September 15, 2015 |agency=] |access-date=February 2, 2016 |url=http://insideclimatenews.org/content/long-tale-exxon-and-climate-change |ref={{harvid|InsideClimate News|2015}}}}
* {{cite web |title=4 Priceless Moments in ExxonMobil's History of Climate Denial |first=Naomi |last=Ages |date=November 25, 2015 |access-date=February 3, 2016 |publisher=] |url=http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/4-priceless-moments-in-exxonmobils-history-of-climate-denial/}}

== Further reading ==

*

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
* (2012, video)
*{{cite episode|title=The Power of Big Oil|title-link=The Power of Big Oil|series=FRONTLINE|series-link=Frontline (American TV program)|network=]|station=]|season=40|number=10–12|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/the-power-of-big-oil/|access-date=July 8, 2022}}


{{ExxonMobil}}
==External links==
* (2012, video)


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Latest revision as of 20:26, 1 November 2024

Overview of climate-related ExxonMobil controversies

For a more general outline of ExxonMobil controversies, see Criticism of ExxonMobil.
A protestor demonstrating as part of the "Exxon knew" movement in Washington, DC in 2015

From the 1980s to mid 2000s, ExxonMobil was a leader in climate change denial, opposing regulations to curtail global warming. For example, ExxonMobil was a significant influence in preventing ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the United States. ExxonMobil funded 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. Of the major oil corporations, ExxonMobil has been the most active in the debate surrounding climate change. According to a 2007 analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the company used many of the same strategies, tactics, organizations, and personnel the tobacco industry used in its denials of the link between lung cancer and smoking.

ExxonMobil has funded, among other groups, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, George C. Marshall Institute, Heartland Institute, the American Legislative Exchange Council and the International Policy Network. Between 1998 and 2004, ExxonMobil granted $16 million to advocacy organizations which disputed the impact of global warming. From 1989 till April 2010, ExxonMobil and its predecessor Mobil purchased regular Thursday advertorials in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal that said that the science of climate change was unsettled.

An analysis conducted by The Carbon Brief in 2011 found that 9 out of 10 of the most prolific authors who cast doubt on climate change or speak against it had ties to ExxonMobil. Greenpeace have said that Koch industries invested more than US$50 million in the past 50 years on spreading doubts about climate change.

Since the 1970s, ExxonMobil and its predecessors had engaged in climate research focusing on global warming. From the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Exxon funded internal and university collaborations, broadly in line with the developing public scientific approach. A review in 2023 found that the global warming projections documented by and the models created by ExxonMobil's own scientists between 1977 and 2003 had "accurately" projected and "skillfully" modeled global warming due to fossil fuel burning, and had reasonably estimated how much CO2 would lead to dangerous warming. The authors of the paper concluded: "Yet, whereas academic and government scientists worked to communicate what they knew to the public, ExxonMobil worked to deny it."

In April 2014, ExxonMobil released a report publicly acknowledging climate change risk for the first time. ExxonMobil predicted that a rising global population, increasing living standards and increasing energy access would result in lower greenhouse gas emissions. In 2015 it expressed support for a carbon tax.

In 2015, the New York Attorney General launched an investigation whether ExxonMobil's statements to investors were consistent with the company's decades of extensive scientific research. In October 2018, based on this investigation, ExxonMobil was sued by the State of New York, which claimed the company defrauded shareholders by downplaying the risks of climate change for its businesses.

Own research

From the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Exxon, one of predecessors of ExxonMobil, had a public reputation as a pioneer in climate change research. Exxon funded internal and university collaborations, broadly in line with the developing public scientific approach, and developed a reputation for expertise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Between the 1970s and 2015, Exxon and ExxonMobil researchers and academic collaborators published dozens of research papers. ExxonMobil provided a list of over 50 article citations from that period.

In July 1977, a senior scientist of Exxon, James Black reported to the company's executives that there was a general scientific agreement at that time that the burning of fossil fuels was the most likely manner in which mankind was influencing global climate change. In 1979–1982, Exxon conducted a research program of climate change and climate modeling, including a research project of equipping their largest supertanker Esso Atlantic with a laboratory and sensors to measure the absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans. In 1980, Exxon noted that synthetic fuels increase CO2 emissions over their petroleum equivalents. Exxon also studied ways of avoiding CO2 emissions if the East Natuna gas field (Natuna D-Alpha block) off Indonesia was to be developed.

In 1981, Exxon shifted its research focus to climate modelling. In 1982, Exxon's environmental affairs office circulated an internal report to Exxon's management which said that the consequences of climate change could be catastrophic, and that a significant reduction in fossil fuel consumption would be necessary to curtail future climate change. It also said that "there is concern among some scientific groups that once the effects are measurable, they might not be reversible."

In 1992, the senior ice researcher, leading a 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. Imperial included these forecasts into its facility planning in the Mackenzie River Delta in the Northwest Territories. In 1996, Mobil, another predecessor of ExxonMobil, calculated the climate changes effect to the Sable gas field project. An ExxonMobil spokesperson said that standard practice in major project planning is to consider a range of factors, and that ExxonMobil's consideration of environmental risks was not inconsistent with their public policy advocacy.

In 2016, the Center for International Environmental Law, a public interest, not-for-profit environmental law firm, claimed that from 1957 onward Humble Oil, one of predecessors of nowadays ExxonMobil, was aware of rising CO2 in the atmosphere and the prospect that it was likely to cause global warming. ExxonMobil responded to this claim that "to suggest that we had definitive knowledge about human-induced climate change before the world's scientists is not a credible thesis."

Denial tactics despite own research results

In 1989, shortly after the presentation by the Exxon's manager of science and strategy development Duane LeVine to the board of directors which reiterated that introducing public policy to combat climate change "can lead to irreversible and costly Draconian steps," the company shifted its position on the climate change to publicly questioning it. This shift was caused by concerns about the potential impact of the climate policy measures to the oil industry.

In the fall of 2015, InsideClimate News published a series of reports on an eight-month investigation based on decades of internal Exxon Mobil files and interviews with former Exxon employees, which stated "Exxon conducted cutting-edge climate research decades ago and then, without revealing all that it had learned, worked at the forefront of climate denial, manufacturing doubt about the scientific consensus that its own scientists had confirmed." Exxon responded to the article by saying the allegations were based on cherry-picked statements from ExxonMobil employees and noting the ongoing climate research the company engaged in during the time in question.

The company also denied claims made by InsideClimate News that it had curtailed carbon dioxide research in favor of climate denial. Exxon's statement said the drop in oil prices hurt oil companies in the 1980s and caused research cutbacks. The statement also claimed that it was uncertain if increases in greenhouse gas emissions caused significant warming, or if immediate action on climate change was necessary.

The content analysis of Exxon Mobil's and its precessors' internal reports, peer-reviewed research papers, and advertorials Exxon placed in the op-ed section of The New York Times between 1972 and 2001, by Harvard University researchers Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes found that "83% of peer-reviewed papers and 80% of internal documents acknowledge that climate change is real and human-caused, yet only 12% of advertorials do so, with 81% instead expressing doubt". The research concluded that ExxonMobil contributed to advancing climate science but promoted doubt about it in advertorials. The report was criticized by ExxonMobil and the Independent Petroleum Association of America, an oil and gas lobbying group, because of alleged incomplete sampling of data collected by Greenpeace, authors' involvement in the #ExxonKnew campaign, and partial financing by the Rockefeller Family Fund. The IPAA also pointed out that Exxon and Mobil were separate companies during much of the period in question, claiming that "the climate research was done primarily by Exxon and the advertorials were primarily done by Mobil."

In 2023, Science journal published a paper reporting that the global warming projections documented by and the models created by ExxonMobil's own scientists between 1977 and 2003 had "accurately" projected and "skillfully" modeled global warming due to fossil fuel burning, and had reasonably estimated how much CO2 would lead to dangerous warming. The authors of the paper concluded: "Yet, whereas academic and government scientists worked to communicate what they knew to the public, ExxonMobil worked to deny it."

Funding of climate change denial

Of the major oil corporations, ExxonMobil has been the most active in the debate surrounding climate change. In 2005, as competing major oil companies diversified into alternative energy and renewable fuels, ExxonMobil re-affirmed its mission as an oil and gas company. According to a 2007 analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the company used many of the same strategies, tactics, organizations, and personnel the tobacco industry used in its denials of the link between lung cancer and smoking. ExxonMobil denied similarity to the tobacco industry.

A study published in Nature Climate Change in 2015 found that ExxonMobil "may have played a particularly important role as corporate benefactors" in the production and diffusion of contrarian information.

During the 1990s and 2000s Exxon helped advance climate change denial internationally. ExxonMobil was a significant influence in preventing ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the United States. ExxonMobil funded 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. Exxon was a founding member of the board of directors of the Global Climate Coalition, composed of businesses opposed to greenhouse gas emission regulation. According to Mother Jones magazine, between 2000 and 2003 ExxonMobil channelled at least $8,678,450 to forty organizations that employed disinformation campaigns including "skeptic propaganda masquerading as journalism" to influence the opinion of the public and political leaders about global warming.

ExxonMobil has funded, among other groups, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, George C. Marshall Institute, Heartland Institute, the American Legislative Exchange Council and the International Policy Network. Since the Kyoto Protocol, Exxon has given more than $20 million to organizations supporting climate change denial.

Between 1998 and 2004, ExxonMobil granted $16 million to advocacy organizations which disputed the impact of global warming.

The Royal Society conducted a survey in 2006 that found ExxonMobil had given US$2.9 million to American groups that "misinformed the public about climate change", 39 of which "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence". The Royal Society expressed "concerns about ExxonMobil's funding of lobby groups that seek to misrepresent the scientific evidence relating to climate change." Also in 2006, the Royal Society issued a demand that ExxonMobil withdraw funding for climate change denial. The letter drew criticism, notably from Timothy Ball who argued the society attempted to "politicize the private funding of science and to censor scientific debate".

According to Drexel University environmental sociologist Robert Brulle, ExxonMobil contributed about 4% of the total funding of what Brulle identifies as the "climate change counter-movement." The Drexel research found that much of the funding that direct sourcing from companies like ExxonMobil and Koch Industries was later diverted through third-party foundations like Donors Trust and Donors Capital to avoid traceability. In 2006, the Brussels-based watchdog organization Corporate Europe Observatory said "ExxonMobil invests significant amounts in letting think-tanks, seemingly respectable sources, sow doubts about the need for governments to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Covert funding for climate sceptics is deeply hypocritical because ExxonMobil spends major sums on advertising to present itself as an environmentally responsible company."

Between 2007 and 2015, ExxonMobil gave $1.87 million to Republicans in congress and $454,000 to the American Legislative Exchange Council. ExxonMobil denied funding climate denial. ExxonMobil was a member of ALEC's "Private Enterprise Advisory Council".; it left ALEC in 2018 .

In January 2007, ExxonMobil vice president for public affairs Kenneth Cohen said that, as of 2006, ExxonMobil had ceased funding of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and "'five or six' similar groups". While ExxonMobil did not identify the other similar groups, a May 2007 report by Greenpeace listed five groups "at the heart of the climate change denial industry" ExxonMobil had stopped funding, as well as 41 similar groups which were still receiving ExxonMobil funds.

In May 2008, 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. In 2008, ExxonMobil funded such organizations and was named one of the most prominent promoters of climate change denial. According to Brulle in a 2012 Frontline interview, ExxonMobil had ceased funding the climate change counter-movement by 2009. According to the environmental advocacy group Greenpeace, ExxonMobil granted $1 million to climate denial groups in 2014. ExxonMobil granted $10,000 to the Science & Environmental Policy Project founded by climate denial advocate, physicist, and environmental scientist Fred Singer and earlier funded the work of solar physicist Wei-Hock "Willie" Soon, who said that most global warming is caused by solar variation.

From 1989 till April 2010, ExxonMobil and its predecessor Mobil purchased regular Thursday advertorials in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal that said that the science of climate change was unsettled. In 2000, responding to the 2000 US First National Assessment of Climate Change, an ExxonMobil advertorial said "The report's language and logic appear designed to emphasize selective results to convince people that climate change will adversely impact their lives. The report is written as a political document, not an objective summary of the underlying science." Another 2000 advertorial published in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal entitled "Unsettled Science" said "it is impossible for scientists to attribute the recent small surface temperature increase to human activity."

ExxonMobil announced in 2008 that it would cut its funding to many of the groups that "divert attention" from the need to find new sources of clean energy, although in 2008 still funded over "two dozen other organisations who question the science of global warming or attack policies to solve the crisis." A survey carried out by the UK Royal Society found that in 2005 ExxonMobil distributed US$2.9 million to 39 groups that "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence".

The Union of Concerned Scientists produced a report titled 'Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air', that criticizes ExxonMobil for "underwriting the most sophisticated and most successful disinformation campaign since the tobacco industry" and for "funnelling about $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of ideological and advocacy organizations that manufacture uncertainty on the issue". In 2006, Exxon said that it was no longer going to fund these groups though that statement has been challenged by Greenpeace.

To investigate how widespread such hidden funding was, senators Barbara Boxer, Edward Markey and Sheldon Whitehouse wrote to a number of companies. Koch general counsel refused the request and said it would infringe the company's first amendment rights.

Funding scientists who are climate change deniers

The Greenpeace research project ExxonSecrets, as well as various academics, have linked several scientists who are climate deniersFred Singer, Fred Seitz and Patrick Michaels—to organizations funded by ExxonMobil and Philip Morris for the purpose of promoting global warming denial. These organizations include the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation. Similarly, groups employing global warming deniers, such as the George C. Marshall Institute, have been criticized for their ties to fossil fuel companies.

On 2 February 2007, The Guardian stated that Kenneth Green, a visiting scholar with AEI, had sent letters to scientists in the UK and the U.S., offering US$10,000 plus travel expenses and other incidental payments in return for essays with the purpose of "highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the IPCC process", specifically regarding the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.

An analysis conducted by The Carbon Brief in 2011 found that 9 out of 10 of the most prolific authors who cast doubt on climate change or speak against it had ties to ExxonMobil. Greenpeace have said that Koch industries invested more than US$50 million in the past 50 years on spreading doubts about climate change.

Lobbying against emissions regulations

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,

In February 2001, the early days of the administration of US President George W. Bush, ExxonMobil's head lobbyist in Washington wrote to the White House urging that "Clinton/Gore carry-overs with aggressive agendas" be kept out of "any decisional activities" on the US delegation to the working committees of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and recommending their replacement by scientists critical of the prevailing scientific consensus on climate change. The chairman of the IPCC, climate scientist Robert Watson, was replaced by Rajendra K. Pachauri, who was seen as more industry-friendly. A spokesperson for ExxonMobil said the company did not have a position on the chairmanship of the IPCC.

On June 14, 2005, ExxonMobil announced they would hire Philip Cooney, four days after Cooney resigned as chief of staff of the Council on Environmental Quality in the Bush White House, two days after the non-profit Government Accountability Project released documents which showed that Cooney had edited government scientific reports so as to downplay the certainty of the science behind the greenhouse effect. Thomas Friedman wrote in The New York Times, "Of all the people the Bush team would let edit its climate reports, we have a guy who first worked for the oil lobby denying climate change, with no science background, then went back to work for Exxon. Does it get any more intellectually corrupt than that?"

Some researches say that ExxonMobil's strategy succeeded to delay the world's response to climate change, others are not sure if company's different behavior would have brought a different outcome.

Acknowledgement of climate change

Internal ExxonMobil documents showed that after the company issued its first press statement acknowledging that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change in 2006, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson and other company executives sought to diminish public concern about climate change by casting doubt on the severity of climate change impacts.

In 2007, ExxonMobil for the first time disclosed to stockholders the financial risks to profitability of climate change. Even that, however, came only in the form of boilerplate language in their Securities and Exchange Commission Form 10-K citing the threat to operations and earnings posed by "laws and regulations related to environmental or energy security matters, including those addressing alternative energy sources and the risks of global climate change" rather than acknowledging the risks posed by climate change itself or by the company's contribution to it. In January 2007, ExxonMobil 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". On February 13, 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."

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

ExxonMobil is dismissive of the fossil fuel divestment movement, writing on ExxonMobil's blog in October, 2014 that fossil fuel divestment was "out of step with reality" and that "to not use fossil fuels is tantamount to not using energy at all."

Exxon routinely uses an internal shadow price on CO2 in its business planning. In December 2015, following similar earlier announcements, Exxon noted that if carbon regulations became a requirement, the best approach would be a carbon tax.

State and federal investigations

As early as 2012 the idea of using RICO laws against the fossil fuel industry, on the model of their use against Big Tobacco, was being considered by some environmental groups. In May 2015 Sheldon Whitehouse put forward the suggestion in The Washington Post. Later the same year, on October 14, Ted Lieu and Mark DeSaulnier wrote to the United States Attorney General (US AG) requesting an investigation into whether ExxonMobil violated any federal laws by "failing to disclose truthful information" about climate change. Asked about the letter by The Guardian, an Exxon spokesperson said "This is complete bullshit. We have a 30 year continuous uninterrupted history of researching climate change..." On October 30, 2015, more than 40 leading US environmental and social justice organizations also wrote to the US AG requesting a federal investigation into ExxonMobil deceiving the public about climate change. Former Vice President Al Gore and all three Democratic primary candidates for President of the United States called for a Department of Justice investigation.

On October 29, Whitehouse, Richard Blumenthal, Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey issued a letter to Exxon questioning their donations to Donors Trust, a group which funds climate change denial. Subsequently, in January 2016, Marjorie Cohn, law professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, California, called for the revocation of ExxonMobil's articles of incorporation.

Still in 2015, the New York Attorney General launched an investigation whether ExxonMobil's statements to investors were consistent with the company's decades of extensive scientific research. In October 2018, based on this investigation, ExxonMobil was sued by the State of New York, which claimed the company defrauded shareholders by downplaying the risks of climate change for its businesses.

Following published reports, based on internal Exxon documents, suggesting that during the 1980s and 1990s Exxon used climate research in its business planning but simultaneously argued publicly that the science was unsettled, the California Attorney General began investigating whether ExxonMobil lied to the public or shareholders about the risk to its business from climate change, possible securities fraud, and violations of environmental laws. ExxonMobil denied wrongdoing.

On March 29, 2016, the attorneys general of Massachusetts and the United States Virgin Islands announced investigations. Seventeen attorneys general were cooperating on investigations. Exxon said the investigations were "politically motivated." In June, the attorney general of the United States Virgin Islands agreed to withdraw the subpoena, and ExxonMobil began an action suing the Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. In 2019 the U.S.Supreme Court found in favor of the Massachusetts attorney general and allowed their case against Exxon to move forward. As a result of that decision, Exxon can no longer withhold records that the AG needs for their investigation into whether Exxon concealed that they were cognizant of the fossil fuels contributing to climate change and knowingly misled both the public and their own investors.

Relations with the Rockefeller family

Beginning in 2004, the descendants of John D. Rockefeller Sr., led mainly by his great-grandchildren, through letters, meetings, and shareholder resolutions, attempted to get ExxonMobil to acknowledge climate change, to abandon climate denial, and to shift towards clean energy. In 2013, responding to a shareholder resolution calling for emissions reductions, CEO Rex Tillerson asked, "What good is it to save the planet if humanity suffers?"

In March 2016 the Rockefeller Family Fund announced plans to "eliminate holdings" of ExxonMobil. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Rockefeller Family Fund both backed reports suggesting that ExxonMobil knew more about the threat of global warming than it had disclosed. David Kaiser, grandson of David Rockefeller Sr. and president of the Rockefeller Family Fund, said that the "...company seems to be morally bankrupt." Valerie Rockefeller Wayne, daughter of former Senator Jay Rockefeller, said, "What we would hope from Exxon is that they would admit what they've done -- these decades of denial..." In November 2016 ExxonMobil accused the Rockefeller family of masterminding a conspiracy against the company.

Kaiser wrote in December 2016, "Our criticism carries a certain historical irony. John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil, and ExxonMobil is Standard Oil's largest direct descendant. In a sense we were turning against the company where most of the Rockefeller family's wealth was created."

Other climate change activities

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". According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, "The funding of academic research activity has provided the corporation legitimacy, while it actively funds ideological and advocacy organizations to conduct a disinformation campaign."

Board shakeup

In 2021 hedge fund Engine No. 1, a critic of ExxonMobil's climate strategy, seated three board members with backing from major institutional investors. Ric Marshall, executive director at ESG Research at MSCI, said, "It shows not just that there is more seriousness apparent in the thinking among investors about climate change, it's a rebuff of the whole attitude of the Exxon board."

See also

References

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