For Immediate Release
Jan. 29, 2004

Contacts
Jon Sohn, Friends of the Earth-US, 202-222-0717 (office) or 202-412-2467 (cell)
Legal Expert, Attorney Peter Roderick, The Climate Justice Programme, 011-44-20-7388-3141

Study Assesses ExxonMobil’s Contribution to Global Warming
First-of-its-Kind Report Paves Way for Legal Action

(Washington, D.C.) -- For the first time, the historic contribution of one company to global climate change has been calculated.  The assessment findings of ExxonMobil’s historical emissions, released by Friends of the Earth (FoE), has significant implications for the company’s legal exposure and for its shareholders. ExxonMobil will hold a global phone conference for analysts and the markets to announce their fourth quarter and full year 2003 financial and operating results, Thursday, Jan. 29, 11 am EST.  The new research could prove vital in paving the way for compensation claims against companies by victims of climate change brought about by man-made pollution.

Friends of the Earth commissioned two studies that showed ExxonMobil, including its predecessors, caused 4.7 to 5.3 percent of the world’s manmade carbon dioxide emissions between 1882 and 2002 by burning its products.  Carbon dioxide emissions are the principal cause of global warming.  Despite UN scientists finding, in 1996, that man-made pollution is having a discernible influence on the global climate, seven out of the 10 worst years for ExxonMobil’s emissions climbed to the highest points after 1996.

Roughly 70 percent of the company’s emissions have been since 1967, when scientists produced what has been described as “the first reasonably solid evidence of global warming.”

Friends of the Earth chose ExxonMobil for an assessment because it has repeatedly attempted to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change and actively resisted attempts to limit carbon dioxide emissions through law.  ExxonMobil is also the world’s largest oil company.

Independent experts in the United States and New Zealand carried out the research.  It involved adding up data from company annual reports and other sources on fossil fuels used and sold, calculating the emissions generated and feeding the results into an internationally recognized computer model.  The research also shows the impact ExxonMobil-related emissions have had on global temperatures and the rise in sea level. 

Report details:

Friends of the Earth commissioned independent experts to produce the two groundbreaking studies that establish the contribution ExxonMobil has made to climate change since its early days as the Standard Oil Trust in 1882.

• Heede R.  “ExxonMobil Corporation emissions inventory 1882-2002: methods and results, plus associated spreadsheets”, Climate Mitigation Services, Snowmass, Colorado. Dec 2003.  This study estimated the carbon dioxide and methane emissions from ExxonMobil’s operations and the burning of its products.
• Salinger J. and Bodeker G.  “Assessing the effects of CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O emissions on atmospheric concentrations, changes in radiative forcing, changes in global mean surface temperature, and changes in sea level: a case study”, National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd. Dec 2003.  This study uses the results of the previous study to run a well-known climate model that calculated the contribution these emissions have made, and will make, to atmospheric concentrations of these gases, to increases in global average surface temperature and to sea-level rise.

The findings of these two studies and their potential implications are summarized in “Exxon’s Climate Footprint:  The Contribution of ExxonMobil to Climate Change since 1882,” also published by Friends of the Earth. 

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