Shareholders push ExxonMobil to make up for environmental damage

Dec 09, 2019 News

Under considerable pressure to mitigate the damage that its operations wreaked on the environment and its contribution to the climate crisis, ExxonMobil has expanded a deal with FuelCell Energy Incorporated, a clean energies-focused global power company, worth up to US$60M.
The agreement is intended to optimize ExxonMobil’s carbon capture capacity at its facilities. It intends to deploy a pilot of the “next-generation fuel cell carbon capture solution” at one of its facilities, and then effect a wider deployment throughout its operations.
A release from ExxonMobil states that the proprietary tech owned by FuelCell Energy uses carbonate fuel cells to capture and concentrate carbon dioxide streams from large industrial sources.

One of ExxonMobil’s US refineries (Matthew Brown/Associated Press)

“Combustion exhaust is directed to the fuel cell, which produces power while capturing and concentrating carbon dioxide for permanent storage.”
It is hoped that the technology will capture about 90 percent of carbon dioxide from various exhaust streams from Exxon’s facilities, said FuelCell’s President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jason Few.
ExxonMobil and FuelCell began working together in 2016.
The oil major touts itself as having a working interest in approximately one-fifth of the world’s total carbon capture capacity, capturing about seven million tonnes per year of carbon dioxide. It states that it has captured more carbon dioxide than any other company. But that’s because, despite being only the sixth biggest oil company in the world in terms of revenue, research coming out of the Climate Accountability Institute in the US shows that Exxon is the oil company with the fourth highest cumulative carbon and methane emissions since 1965.
The report on 20 oil companies found that they collectively are responsible for about 35 percent of all emissions, a direct contributor to the climate crisis.
ExxonMobil, particularly, had been shamed earlier this year for its poor commitment to its climate reporting obligations, held by one of its top 20 investors, Legal and General Investment Management Limited (LGIM). That company decided to strip the oil company of funds set aside for clients who maintain a commitment to environmental, social and governance themes.
LGIM has also committed to using its remaining funds committed to the company, to vote against the Chair, Darren Woods, adding that its efforts will set the right precedent to companies who should be raising their standards in the area of climate accountability.
The oil company has been accused of knowing about global warming decades ago, and hiding it from the world.
ExxonMobil has been accused of hiding climate change from the public for decades, and is on the receiving end of two major lawsuits alleging that it misled the public and its investors about the cost of climate change on its operations.

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