Exxonmobil misled public on climate change, research claims
THE fierce backlash against Exxonmobil’s climate claims has reached new heights after a damning report alleged the company misled the public over the risk of man-made climate change for decades.
Exxonmobil is already facing a looming legal threat from US states and a group of shareholders over allegations that it has cast doubt on the existence of man-made climate change since the 1980s, despite clear evidence from its own researchers that global warming fears are valid.
Research scientists at Harvard University, who scrutinised 187 Exxonmobil climate change documents, said the company chose to doubt the reality of the problem in public, while it knew it was real.
Exxonmobil, like many oil companies, has employed scientists to study climate concerns. For the past 40 years the company has found that the majority of its research supports the theory that man-made carbon emissions are responsible for potentially devastating changes to the world’s climate.
Harvard’s empirical analysis found that between 1983 and the present, 83pc of Exxonmobil’s peer-reviewed research papers and 80pc of its internal documents acknowledged that climate change was real and man-made.
By contrast only 12pc of its paid-for editorial-style advertisements published in the New York Times side with this consensus, with 81pc instead expressing doubt over the reality of climate change.
The scientists concluded that Exxonmobil did “mislead” the public, throwing fuel on the smouldering legal threat against the company which is being compared to the tidal wave of litigation against Big Tobacco in the wake of proof of the dangers of smoking.
Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, has issued multiple subpoenas to Exxonmobil and, together with the attorney generals of 17 US states and territories, is investigating whether or not the firm has violated statutes relating to racketeering, consumer protection or investor protection.
“The attorney general’s investigation of Exxonmobil has uncovered significant evidence indicating that Exxon may have misled New York investors and consumers about the risk of climate change to the company,” said a spokeswoman for Mr Schneiderman.
“We will continue to vigorously pursue our investigation, regardless of Exxon’s unprecedented campaign of delay and distraction.”
Exxonmobil, which raked in earnings of $3.4bn (£2.6bn) in the second quarter, has consistently rebuffed the claims. “We unequivocally reject allegations that Exxonmobil suppressed climate change research contained in media reports that are inaccurate distortions of Exxonmobil’s nearly 40year history of climate research,” the company has said previously.
But the Harvard scientists argue that although Exxon’s research was publicly available via the company’s website, its communications with the public cast doubt on climate science and were at odds with the majority of the internal research.
A UK spokesman for the firm did not respond to a request for comment.