climate scorecard

Fossil Fuel Giants Are Pumping Out Greenwashing—Their Tricks Won’t Work

Kathy Mulvey, climate accountability campaign director

November 13, 2018 9:43 AM EDT

In recent months, we’ve seen fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil leave the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), pledge $1 million to support a carbon tax, announce measures to reduce methane emissions, and join the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI). Is the company finally getting serious about addressing climate change? Um, no. We found that these companies still appear to be trying to trick us with greenwashing. Here are six tricks by ExxonMobil and some of its key competitors that we’re countering with our public exposure and organizing. Read more >

Photo: Brenda Ekwurzel

Yes, ExxonMobil and Chevron are Still Distorting Climate Science

Brenda Ekwurzel, senior climate scientist

October 23, 2018 1:00 PM EDT

If you look at headlines from the last year, ExxonMobil, Chevron and other major fossil fuel companies have seemingly turned a new page on climate change. But, as I and my colleagues have analyzed, this “support” is a PR distraction when these companies are keeping up business-as-usual. Today UCS released a scorecard,which analyzed what eight major fossil fuel companies are saying they’re doing about climate change, and just how much these companies are doing to drastically lower their emissions. Read more >

Experts Expose Hot Air in Fossil Fuel Companies’ Climate Risk Reporting

Kathy Mulvey, climate accountability campaign director

October 2, 2018 3:15 PM EDT

Last week, I participated in the 2^nd Conference on Fossil Fuel Supply and Climate Policy at the University of Oxford in England. It was an exciting opportunity to discuss policies and actions aimed at limiting the supply of coal, oil, and natural gas with academic researchers, civil society leaders, and other experts from across the globe. Along with my UCS colleague Peter Frumhoff, I organized a panel on “Well Below 2°C Reporting by Major Fossil Energy Companies: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Since the 2015 adoption of the Paris climate agreement, companies such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Royal Dutch Shell have begun to publish reports in response to mounting investor demands that they disclose their plans for a world in which global temperature increase is kept well below two degrees Celsius (2°C) above pre-industrial levels. Panelists looked at climate risk reporting by major investor-owned oil and gas companies from legal, shareholder, scientific, and advocacy perspectives.

2°C or not 2°C? Unanswered Questions in ExxonMobil’s and Chevron’s Climate Risk Reports

Kathy Mulvey, climate accountability campaign director

May 9, 2018 9:57 AM EDT

Heading into their annual meetings at the end of this month, both ExxonMobil and Chevron have published reports in response to investor demands that they disclose their plans for a world in which global temperature increase is kept well below two degrees Celsius (2°C) above pre-industrial levels—the target set in the Paris Climate Agreement. Should ExxonMobil and Chevron shareholders be satisfied with these reports? No—and there are indications that some are not. I took a look at these reports, consulted with other UCS experts, and identified four big questions left unanswered. Read more >

Investors Want Transparency. ExxonMobil Offers Smoke and Mirrors

Kathy Mulvey, climate accountability campaign director

June 30, 2017 9:03 AM EDT

Yesterday, an industry-led task force issued final recommendations on how companies across all sectors should report on climate-related financial risks. ExxonMobil, which faced a shareholder rebellion on this issue at its annual meeting last month, could have seized the opportunity to welcome the recommendations and commit to improving its own reporting. Instead, the company released its 2016 Corporate Citizenship Report, revealing that ExxonMobil continues to funnel more than $1.5 million to groups that have spread disinformation on climate science and/or seek to block action on climate change. Read more >

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Seth Shulman is editorial director at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Prior to joining UCS in 2012, he had a long and varied career as a science journalist, columnist, and author, writing six books and hundreds of articles for magazines including The Atlantic, Discover, Nature, Parade, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, Technology Review, and Time.

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