ExxonMobil executives tried to undermine science even after it publicly acknowledged the link between fossil fuels and climate change.
In 2006, ExxonMobil publicly acknowledged climate change risks and supported the Paris agreement.
However, documents revealed by the Wall Street Journal and reported by the Guardian shows that during this period under former chief executive Rex Tillerson, the company also tried to undermine science.
In 2008, ExxonMobil also pledged to stop funding climate-denier groups. But documents show that the company’s c-suite said it would direct a scientist to help the US’s top oil and gas lobbying group to write a paper about the “uncertainty” of measuring greenhouse gas emissions.
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Other examples include Exxon’s announced with scientific warnings from top authorities.
After the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighted the need to curb greenhouse-gas emissions in 2011, Tillerson told a leading Exxon researcher that the IPCC’s warning was “not credible”, and said he was “dissatisfied” with the media’s coverage of the warning.
When asked by the Journal about the new documents, the ExxonMobil chief executive Darren Woods said: “When taken out of context, it seems bad.”
“But having worked with some of these colleagues earlier in my career, I have the benefit of knowing they are people of good intent,” he said. “None of these old emails and notes matter, though. All that does is that we’re building an entire business dedicated to reducing emissions – both our own and others’ – and spending billions of dollars on solutions that have a real, sustainable impact.”
Tillerson declined to comment, the Wall Street Journal said.
