Exxon Makes Grudging, Pinched Pledge To "Limit Emissions Intensity", Along W. Soothing Mouth Sounds

[hatrack]

ExxonMobil on Monday said it would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, bending to pressure from investors that have been calling on the oil giant to address the risks posed to its business by climate change. The company had long resisted such pressure, and among the major multinational oil companies was the last holdout in refusing to commit to any corporate-wide emissions reductions.

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Exxon has also been facing increasing pressure from investors big and small to better address climate risks. In May, BlackRock, one of Exxon’s largest shareholders, admonished the company for its failure to announce comprehensive emissions reductions goals, and voted unsuccessfully to oust two Exxon board members. More recently, some smaller shareholders, including pension funds, have announced an effort to reshape the company’s board of directors over similar concerns about the company’s failures to address climate risks. Exxon’s emissions announcement no doubt sought to calm this storm, but it seems unlikely it will do so. The company said Monday it would reduce the emissions “intensity”—or emissions per barrel of oil and gas—of its production by 15 to 20 percent by 2025, compared to 2016 levels. That target is limited to the drilling and production that Exxon operates, which according to data analysed by the Environmental Defense Fund, accounts for only about half the company’s total production.

Ed. - Emphasis added.

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Earlier this year, Darren Woods, Exxon’s chief executive, referred dismissively to some of those pledges as a “beauty competition.” In Monday’s announcement, he struck a more conciliatory tone: “We respect and support society’s ambition to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, and continue to advocate for policies that promote cost-effective, market-based solutions to address the risks of climate change.” Exxon also said it would reduce methane emissions intensity 40 to 50 percent, and flaring intensity by 35 to 45 percent in order to reach its larger emissions goal. Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, often leaks or is intentionally released during drilling operations, while the practice of flaring instead burns the excess methane and releases carbon dioxide.

What Exxon did not do was to indicate in any way that the company is changing course. The concerns of investors—and indeed much of the rest of the world—are less about whether Exxon may incrementally reduce its own direct emissions and more about whether it is reckoning with the massive and rapid shift necessary to limit global warming to safe levels, a shift that will require the world to burn significantly less oil by the end of the decade. On that point, Logan said, the announcement falls short. “There’s nothing in here that should change an investor’s level of concern about Exxon’s climate strategy,” he said. “Certainly it’s done nothing to prepare Exxon for a transition. So no, this is not convincing in the least.”

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15122020/exxon-mobil-pledge-emissons-net-zero/

[True Blue American]

1. BP announced

That peak oil has passed and they are investing billions into clean energy!