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U.S. Oil Companies Ignore Climate Change While the Rest of the Industry Evolves
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601584/us-oil-companies-ignore-climate-change-while-the-rest-of-the-industry-evolves/[font face=Serif][font size=5]U.S. Oil Companies Ignore Climate Change While the Rest of the Industry Evolves[/font]
[font size=4]Exxon Mobil and Chevron shareholders voted against climate measures, but the companies are holdouts in an industry that is starting to change its ways.[/font]
by Michael Reilly | May 26, 2016
[font size=3]Big Oil isn’t going away any time soon – and yet oil companies are under more pressure than ever to deal with the risks that climate change poses to their business and to the planet.
At their shareholder meetings yesterday U.S. oil giants Chevron and Exxon Mobil avoided major insurrection, as big investors voted down a series of climate-related measures. Among them was a call for Exxon to acknowledge that limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius was a “moral imperative,” and both companies faced initiatives that called for performing “stress tests” to determine how future climate policies could harm their bottom lines.
In his meeting address Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson declared, “Just saying turn the taps off is not acceptable to humanity,” – strictly speaking, he is right. A company worth almost $375 billion cannot turn on a dime, and our oil and gas-burning lifestyle won’t evaporate overnight.
But such comments mask the fact that oil and gas companies are approaching a crossroads. Exxon continues to behave as though economic growth and carbon emissions are one in the same – the company predicts that 60 percent of the world’s energy needs will still be met by oil and gas by 2040. But carbon emissions have decoupled from economic productivity. And the Paris climate accords could significantly impact demand for fossil if the signatory countries follow through on their promises.
…[/font][/font]
[font size=4]Exxon Mobil and Chevron shareholders voted against climate measures, but the companies are holdouts in an industry that is starting to change its ways.[/font]
by Michael Reilly | May 26, 2016
[font size=3]Big Oil isn’t going away any time soon – and yet oil companies are under more pressure than ever to deal with the risks that climate change poses to their business and to the planet.
At their shareholder meetings yesterday U.S. oil giants Chevron and Exxon Mobil avoided major insurrection, as big investors voted down a series of climate-related measures. Among them was a call for Exxon to acknowledge that limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius was a “moral imperative,” and both companies faced initiatives that called for performing “stress tests” to determine how future climate policies could harm their bottom lines.
In his meeting address Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson declared, “Just saying turn the taps off is not acceptable to humanity,” – strictly speaking, he is right. A company worth almost $375 billion cannot turn on a dime, and our oil and gas-burning lifestyle won’t evaporate overnight.
But such comments mask the fact that oil and gas companies are approaching a crossroads. Exxon continues to behave as though economic growth and carbon emissions are one in the same – the company predicts that 60 percent of the world’s energy needs will still be met by oil and gas by 2040. But carbon emissions have decoupled from economic productivity. And the Paris climate accords could significantly impact demand for fossil if the signatory countries follow through on their promises.
…[/font][/font]
