According to a new study published Thursday, climate projections that ExxonMobil commissioned internally from scientists for the years 1977 through 2003 match fairly closely with comparable studies by governments and universities. Also, ExxonMobil’s numbers are suspiciously similar to observed temperature rises over the same period.
“Our research pulls up new data from old documents,” says lead author Geoffrey Supran of the study. This environmental sciences and policy researcher at the University of Miami emphasizes that, behind the scenes, the oil company was actually a pioneer in the field of climate science.
Research had already come out in 2015 detailing how ExxonMobil researchers studied climate change in the 1970s and 1980s. But it was not yet known that the oil company’s own research was as good as it appears now.
The findings might have major legal consequences. Patrick Parenteau, professor emeritus of law at the Vermont Law and Graduate School, even finds the revelation explosive.
ExxonMobil and other oil companies have been accused for years of misleading investors and the public regarding climate change. This study shows that ExxonMobil was well aware of how harmful fossil fuels actually are.
