Leaked documents reveal ExxonMobil plans to increase emissions 17 percent by 2025

ExxonMobil is planning to increase carbon-dioxide emissions by 17 percent by 2025, according to internal documents obtained by Bloomberg News,.

The amount is equal to extra 23 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, or the entire output of Greece – but it only accounts for emissions from Exxon’s oil and gas production.

The added emissions do not include carbon dioxide from the millions of gas-powered vehicles it fuels, which would quintuple that output to 100 million tons of additional carbon dioxide.

Exxon’s ‘growth plans will continue to include meaningful emission mitigation efforts,’ the company said, mostly via carbon capture initiatives. 

Leaked documents indicate ExxonMobil has been planning to increase greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent by the year 2025.  That’s equal to extra 23 million tons of carbon dioxide, or the entire output of Greece

Those efforts are already factored into the 17 percent increase, Bloomberg reports. 

Unlike its competitors, Exxon hasn’t made any pledges of carbon reduction or neutrality. 

Both BP and Shell have announced they’re aiming for net-zero emissions by 2050, with the former setting a target of 30 to 35 percent reduction within the next decade. 

In March, Exxon CEO Darren Woods dismissed those efforts as window dressing.  

Exxon Mobil has misled the public on climate change for over four decades, according to a shocking study by Harvard scientists

Exxon Mobil has misled the public on climate change for over four decades, according to a shocking study by Harvard scientists

‘Individual companies setting targets and then selling assets to another company so that their portfolio has a different carbon intensity has not solved the problem for the world,’ Woods said. Exxon is focused on ‘taking steps to solve the problem for society as a whole and not try and get into a beauty competition.’  

Exxon halted drilling and refining projects when prices plummeted in April, but with an intention of restarting later, rather than canceling them. 

The leaked internal report calls for the production of a million more barrels of oil a day, the equivalent of nearly 158 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.

The emissions projections are ‘an early assessment that does not include additional mitigation and abatement measures that would have been considered as the next step in the process,’ Exxon said in a statement. ‘The same planning document illustrates how we have been successful in mitigating emissions in the past.’

A 2017 study out of Harvard claimed Exxon Mobil misled the public about climate change for over four decades, making ‘explicit factual misrepresentations’ in newspaper ads.

Researchers said that while, as early as 1979, Exxon scientists internally acknowledged burning fossil fuels was adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and causing global temperatures to rise, the company’s position in New York Times advertorials consistently asserted doubt about climate science. 

‘It’s past time for Exxon Mobil to take responsibility for the harmful impacts of its oil and gas products,’ said Kathy Mulvey, a campaign director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told Bloomberg.

‘The world at large and its own investors would benefit from Exxon redirecting its strategy toward the energy we need in a low-carbon future.’

A direct descendant of Standard Oil, ExxonMobile employs 74,000 workers across six continents.

Exxon reported a $1.1 billion loss in the second quarter of 2020,  its first back-to-back net loss in 36 years. On Friday, Exxon lost its title as America's largest energy company, unseated by renewable-energy concern NextEra

Exxon reported a $1.1 billion loss in the second quarter of 2020,  its first back-to-back net loss in 36 years. On Friday, Exxon lost its title as America’s largest energy company, unseated by renewable-energy concern NextEra

But oil consumption has tanked during the pandemic: Exxon reported a $1.1 billion loss in the second quarter of 2020, according to The Motley Fool, its first back-to-back net loss in 36 years.

It’s predicting losses for a third quarter, as well, and will be cutting upwards of 1,600 jobs in Europe, according to the Dallas Business News

The company was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average earlier this year and share prices are hovering near an 18-year low..

On Friday, Exxon briefly lost its throne as America’s largest energy company, unseated by renewable-energy concern NextEra.

Over the last decade, Exxon investors have seen a negative 25 percent return on investment compared to NextEra, which has delivered 600 percent.

While Florida-based NextEra is the largest producer of wind and solar power in the world, renewables only make about 30 percent of its business.

The remaining 70 percent come from traditional utilities that are mostly powered by fossil fuels.

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