Well , well , well , look who finally settle to get together the Big Oil mood pledge party . The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Exxon , the society that for decadespushed clime denialon the world , is “ considering ” making a pledge to get its carbon emissions to final zero by 2050 .
Forming a net - zero target is the barest lower limit that a potbelly can do in the year of our lord 2021 , even for an petroleum and flatulence ship’s company : BP , Shell , and Total , along with several other international oil color big league all announce their last zero emissions goalslast class . For any other fellowship , pay an entire cover piece in the fiscal paper of track record on the fact that they ’re think about putting one in place now would be laughable .
But this is Exxon , one of the largest historical sources of contamination — and notoriously terrible when it come to climate action . Areportpublished by Oil Change International last drop comparing and counterpoint climate plans for eight major international crude oil companies marked as Exxon only one of two companies to get a “ grossly deficient ” place in all category . Exxon CEO Darren Woods has also been weirdly belligerent about the prospect of the company making any moves to be better on climate , despite his very public ( and very showy ) support for the Paris Agreement .
Photo: Richard Drew (AP)
In early March of last year , Woods thrash other oil company for set nett zero targets , insinuate that it was nothing more than an seek to look middling in the public eye . “ We ’re very focused on seek to make certain that we ’re lecture about this holistically and actually taking steps to solve the problem for society as a whole and not to seek to get into a stunner equal , mantrap competition , around whose sheet looks like what , ” hetold investors during an annual meeting . ( Weird to land pageants into this , but OK , Darren . )
It is true that these plan arelargely smoke and mirrors bull . But not making any character of climate committal is itself a instruction . For Exxon , a lot has modify since March of 2020 — a whole lot . Most notably , the company got its ass handed to it back in May wheninvestors revoltedand elected three new board member who promised to apply their superpower to force Exxon to tauten up its climate game . source tell the Journal that these board appendage ’ reaching have made matter a little more serious for Exxon ’s top brass , who are now scrambling to figure out ways to keep investor well-chosen . The Journal cover that one of the young board members , “ Space Cowboy ” Alexander Karsner , had a “ contentious ” exchange with Woods during a gameboard meeting in July on the company ’s nonstarter to keep down its emissions .
Conveniently , the Wall Street Journal forgot to mention the other openhanded crisis facing the company right now that could have shaped this decision . In late June , Unearthed , Greenpeace ’s investigative arm , published video footageobtained in a sting of an Exxon lobbyist detailing how the company make political clime gridlock and deceives the public , include a clip of the lobbyist calling a carbon tax an “ advocacy tool ” and “ outstanding talk point ” as well as admit that Exxon had poured money into “ shadow groups ” promote clime abnegation . unenviable ! It ’s fairly empty the company needs a serious image makeover properly now , and a red - carpet rollout for its net zero emissions programme could be just the ticket .
Of course , this being Exxon , we ’d be shock if any net zero architectural plan they put forward actually has substance . In the yesteryear , Exxon ’s palpate - good green announcements have focalise on expelling intensity , not actual emissions — adeeply debatable measurementthat , in Exxon ’s past clime design , in reality allowed for a 17 % growth in carbon emissions each class . The Journal mentions that any net - zero plan would probably just focus on the company ’s scope 1 and 2 emissions , those get directly by Exxon ’s plus and what it take to dig up and refine fossil fuel . That leaves out what ’s make out as scope 3 emission , or emissions induce by the sales event of all that fossil fuel . Those are by far the Leo the Lion ’s part any dodo fuel companionship ’s emissions , and Exxon is particularly defective on that front . In 2019 alone , Exxon ’s cathode-ray oscilloscope 3 emissions total about730 million metrical loads of carbon dioxide , a peck mellow than other crude oil company like BP ( 360 million metrical tons in 2019 ) and Royal Dutch Shell ( 576 million metric tons ) .
Research has shownthat oil colour and gas companies drop the most on advertizing following negative press . While a reported part in the Journal is in spades not the same as an advertising campaign , it ’s clear that the company — or at least someone on the inside — made a decisive move in choose to partake this story with that composition . If I had to guess , we may be in for lots more fancy announcements about clime action as Exxon shin to polish its image . And while it ’s nice to hope that corporations are act in unspoiled organized religion , theInternational Energy Agency has saidthe only way we ’re pop off to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement and have any hope of curbing warming is by stopping all unexampled fossil oil and gas exploration by next class . If Exxon makes that move , I ’ll run through my lid .
Daily Newsletter
Get the in effect technical school , science , and culture word in your inbox daily .
News from the futurity , cede to your present .
You May Also Like
