As the world fights climate change, Exxon plans for massive increase in pollution

As the world fights climate change, Exxon plans for massive increase in pollution – Bloomberg exposé

Oct 07, 2020 News

Kaieteur News – An expose by the New York based publication, Bloomberg, shows that ExxonMobil is playing out a US$210 billion seven-year investment strategy it knows will cause a steep surge in carbon dioxide emissions.

TOXIC – ExxonMobil has been flaring gas at the Liza Destiny vessel for over eight months, despite the fact that the gas is supposed to be re-injected into the reservoir. (Credit: Guyana Marine Conservation Society)

The publication’s analysis of leaked internal documents from the oil major shows it knows its emissions levels will rise 17 percent by 2025. Bloomberg says this is “setting one of the largest corporate emitters against international efforts to slow the pace of warming.”
The report states, “A chart in the documents lists Exxon’s direct emissions for 2017—122 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent—as well as a projected figure for 2025 of 143 million tons. The additional 21 million tons is a net result of Exxon’s estimate for ramping up production, selling assets and undertaking efforts to reduce pollution by deploying renewable energy and burying carbon dioxide.”
This increase is pegged as more emissions than the entire nation of Greece.
Due to the company’s method of considering only greenhouse emissions from its direct operations, Bloomberg said that the company’s internal estimates only account for five times less than the company’s full impact on the global climate. Most other emissions, it said, would come from other end uses like customers burning fuel in vehicles.
Though the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically reduced oil production, thereby emissions the world over, Bloomberg pointed to public statements by Exxon that it is merely delaying its projects, instead of cancelling them.
ExxonMobil tends to make a show of the measures it is taking to reduce carbon emissions, but the expose shows that the increase in emissions planned by the energy company far outweighs its reductions. Without factoring in Exxon’s emissions lowering measures, Bloomberg said that Exxon’s increase in emissions would actually be 25 percent at 154 million tons of CO₂ equivalent.
Journalists, Kevin Crowley and Akshat Rathi noted that Exxon’s European counterparts are quickly moving to reduce the negative impacts of their operations on the environment, with many quickly moving to renewables. Exxon, however, has not publicly committed to reducing its emissions or become carbon neutral by some date; nor has it disclosed its forecasts for its own emissions. Even some of its own employees are reportedly beginning to question its commitment to reductions.
In a response, Exxon called the Bloomberg story inaccurate and said that the reported projections are “preliminary” and do not consider “mitigation and abatement measures that would have been evaluated in the planning process.” However, Bloomberg noted that Exxon declined to provide any details on the new projections.

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