he U.S.-based oil and gas company
ExxonMobil has an annual turnover of
$279 billion, which makes it one of the
world’s largest companies by revenue
(comparable to the entire economy
of Finland), and it is also among the
top 10 producers of CO 2 emissions. A
comprehensive peer-reviewed study
by Harvard University researchers has
shown that ExxonMobil spent decades misleading the
public about climate change and the risks posed by
fossil fuel emissions. With its own in-house climatemodels the company confirmed the global warming
consensus in the early 1980s but publicly denied it.
While ExxonMobil may dispute the data, the facts
speak a clear language: The study has reviewed the
company’s internal deliberations, scientific research,
and public rhetoric. The conclusion: “On the question
of whether ExxonMobil had misled non-scientific
audiences regarding climate science, our analysis
supports the conclusion that it did.” There was also “a
systematic discrepancy between what ExxonMobil’s
scientists and executives discussed about climate
change privately and in academic circles and what
it presented to the general public.” When the CO 2
contamination of the atmosphere reached a record
high in May of 2019, climate researchers reviewed
ExxonMobil’s projections and found the company’s
predictions made 37 years earlier were right on the
mark. The company knew that the polar ice caps were
going to melt. But while 83% of peer-reviewed papers
written by company scientists acknowledged that
climate change is real and caused by humans, only
12% of company ads acknowledged those facts
while more than 80% expressed doubt.T
HOW LONG HAVE THESE COMPANIES KNOWN
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CO 2 CRISIS?
WHICH NATIONS ARE
MOST RESPONSIBLE
FOR CLIMATE CHANGE?
O
nly one U.S.-based corporation (ExxonMobil, ranked
#5) is among the top 10 worst polluters, ahead of the
Netherlands’ Royal Dutch Shell (ranked #9). But the
biggest emitter by far is China for coal, followed by Saudi
Arabian Oil and Russia’s Gazprom. Other top-10 polluters
are based in Iran, India, and Mexico. The only German
polluter in the top 100 list is the electric utility RWE AG
(ranked #41), however seven of the biggest offenders in
the EU are based in Germany, making this country the
biggest polluter in the EU and putting it in sixth place
worldwide. But Germany has been making huge strides:
The share of electricity from renewable sources rose from
just 3.4% in 1990 to more than 50% in March of 2019.
By way of contrast, solar and wind still provide less than
10% of the total energy generation in the United States.
Given the progress Germany has made, iD interviewed
one of the country’s top climate scientists.