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The Exxon Mobil climate change controversy surrounds ExxonMobil's climate change related activities, with the purpose of delaying widespread acceptance and action on climate change.

General

After the 1980s, Exxon was a leader in climate change denial, opposing regulations to curtail global warming. 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 helped to found and lead the Global Climate Coalition of businesses opposed to the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report in 2007 accusing ExxonMobil of spending $16 million, between 1998 and 2005, towards 43 advocacy organizations which dispute the impact of global warming. The report argued that ExxonMobil used disinformation tactics similar to those used by the tobacco industry in its denials of the link between lung cancer and smoking, saying that the company used "many of the same organizations and personnel to cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue."

In 2014, ExxonMobil publicly acknowledged climate change risks. It nominally supports a carbon tax.

Early climate change related activities

From the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Exxon funded internal and university collaborations, broadly in line with the developing public scientific approach.

In July 1977, long before global warming was a national issue, a senior company scientist 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. In 1978, an expert in Exxon's Research & Engineering division said in an internal memo summarizing a technical presentation that independent researchers estimated a doubling of carbon dioxide levels would increase average global temperatures by as much as 2 to 3 degrees Celsius. Exxon launched a research program into climate change and climate modelling. Exxon outfitted the oil tanker Esso Atlantic with sensors to measure the absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans, a critical factor in climate change. Exxon researchers and academic collaborators published peer reviewed research on climate change.

ExxonMoil integrated climate change into its operational planning. In 1981, Exxon's in-house climate experts raised concerns regarding developing the offshore Natuna gas field off Indonesia, which is 70% carbon dioxide, the main contributor to climate change. 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.” In 1992, the senior ice researcher, leading a Calgary-based research team in Exxon’s Canadian subsidiary Imperial Oil, assessed how global warming could affect Exxon’s Arctic operations, and reported that exploration and development costs in the Beaufort Sea might be lower, while higher sea levels and rougher seas could threaten the company’s coastal and offshore infrastructure.

Funding of climate change denial

Toward the end of the 1980s, Exxon curtailed its own climate research and was a leader in climate change denial. Exxon helped to found and lead the Global Climate Coalition of businesses opposed to greenhouse gas emission regulation. 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.

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. According to Mother Jones Magazine, the company channeled at least $8,678,450 between the years 2000-2003 to forty different organizations that have employed disinformation campaigns including "skeptic propaganda masquerading as journalism" to influence opinion of the public and of political leaders about global warming. According to The Guardian, ExxonMobil has funded, among other groups, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, George C. Marshall Institute, Heartland Institute, Congress on Racial Equality, TechCentralStation.com, and International Policy Network. In 2007 the Union of Concerned Scientists said that between 1998 and 2004 ExxonMobil granted $16 million to select advocacy organizations which disputed the impact of global warming, and that ExxonMobil used disinformation tactics similar to those used by the tobacco industry in its denials of the link between lung cancer and smoking, saying that the company used "many of the same organizations and personnel to cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue." In 2006 the Royal Society published a letter, pointing out that 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," and ExxonMobil granted $2.9 million to US organizations which "misinformed the public about climate change through their websites." 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."

Prior to 2014, ExxonMobil funded the work of solar physicist Wei-Hock "Willie" Soon, who said that most global warming is caused by solar variation.

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". Cohen stated that, as of 2006, ExxonMobil had ceased funding of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and "'five or six' similar groups". While the company did not publicly state which the other similar groups were, a May 2007 report by Greenpeace does list the five groups "at the heart of the climate change denial industry" it stopped funding as well as a list of 41 similar groups which are still receiving ExxonMobil funds.

In May 2008, a week before their annual shareholder's meeting, ExxonMobil pledged in its annual corporate citizenship report that it would cut funding to "several public policy research groups whose position on climate change could divert attention" from the need to address climate change. On July 1, 2009, The Guardian newspaper revealed that ExxonMobil continued to fund such organizations, including the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) and the Heritage Foundation. In December 2009 Mother Jones magazine said ExxonMobil was a vocal promulgator of climate change disinformation. According to Brulle, by 2009 ExxonMobil had ceased funding the climate change counter-movement.

Between 2007 and 2015, ExxonMobil gave $1.87 million to Congressional climate change deniers and $454,000 to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ExxonMobil denied funding climate denial. ExxonMobil is a member of ALEC's “Enterprise Council“, its corporate leadership board. In December 2009 Mother Jones magazine said ExxonMobil was among the most vocal climate change deniers.

Stockholder activism and public acknowledgement of climate change

Beginning in 2004, the descendants of John D. Rockefeller, 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 2007, ExxonMobil for the first time disclosed to stockholders the financial risks to profitability of climate change. On February 13, 2007, ExxonMobil CEO Rex W. Tillerson acknowledged that the planet was warming while carbon dioxide levels were increasing, "but in the same speech gave an unalloyed defense of the oil industry and predicted that hydrocarbons would dominate the world’s transportation as energy demand grows by an expected 40 percent by 2030. stated that there is no significant alternative to oil in coming decades, and that ExxonMobil would continue to make petroleum and natural gas its primary products."

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

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

On October 14, 2015, Ted Lieu and Mark DeSaulnier, Democratic members of The United States House of Representatives from California, wrote to the United States Attorney General requesting an investigation into whether ExxonMobil violated any federal laws by "failing to disclose truthful information" about climate change. On October 30, 2015, more than 40 leading US environmental and social justice organizations wrote to United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch requesting a federal investigation into Exxon Mobil deceiving the American public about the risks of climate change.

The New York Attorney General is investigating whether ExxonMobil misled the public or stock holders regarding the impact of climate change. The Martin Act in New York state law gives the state Attorney General broad powers to investigate financial fraud.

Other climate change related 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".

See also

• List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming
• Merchants of Doubt

References

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External links

• Rex Tillerson speaks about future climate change (2012, video)

• ExxonMobil
• Climate change controversies
• Climate change skepticism and denial