As the realities of climate change continues to unfold right before the eyes of the world, the chief executive of one of the world's largest oil companies says it's the public's fault for letting it happen.
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In a recent interview with Fortune magazine, ExxonMobil (XOM) CEO Darren Woods argued that oil companies like the one he runs are not solely responsible for the problems that arise from the current climate crisis.
Instead, he blames lowly consumers for not forking up the funds for clean-energy alternatives.
“The dirty secret nobody talks about is how much all this is going to cost and who’s willing to pay for it,” Woods told Fortune. “The people who are generating those emissions need to be aware of and pay the price for generating those emissions. That is ultimately how you solve the problem.”
“When are people going to willing to pay for carbon reduction? We have opportunities to make fuels with lower carbon in it, but people aren’t willing to spend the money to do that.”
Internal documents unearthed by investigative journalists at Inside Climate News showed that ExxonMobil knew about the dangerous effects of fossil fuel use as far back as the late 1970s, referencing the transcript of a speech given by a senior company scientist by the name of James F. Black.
In it, he warned that the increase in carbon dioxide levels from the burning of fossil fuels could lead to average global temperatures by about 2 to 3 degrees celsius - which would lead to devastating effects.
"Some countries would benefit but others could have their agricultural output reduced or destroyed," Black said in the executive summary of his talk, dated June 6, 1978.
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In the present day, the current ExxonMobil chief executive told Fortune that the world "waited too long" to develop a carbon-neutral alternative and also said that while the oil giant "recognized the need to decarbonize," a carbon tax would help achieve the goal more effectively.
Additionally, and perhaps more telling, while Woods defended Exxon's small investments into carbon capture and hydrogen fuels, he said that the reason why Exxon isn't looking more into clean energy sources like wind and solar is because it lacks "the ability to generate above-average returns for investors."
“We recognize a need for that. We just don’t see that as an appropriate use of ExxonMobil’s capabilities,” he added.
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