Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson pushed back against criticism from investors at his annual shareholder’s meeting Wednesday the company was not doing enough to reduce emissions and combat climate change.
“My view on this is that achieving certain emissions levels that someone’s model says will make a difference, but there’s no one that has a viable pathway to achieve that,” he said. “What if everything I’m doing doesn’t work. Or the reasons for all this happening aren’t what we thought.”
As the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, Exxon is taking heat for its opposition to efforts to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and other gases connected to rising global temperature. A study released by a federal panel of scientists earlier this month found temperatures were already rising across much of the United States and communities were already feeling the effects of drought and increasing wildfires.
At Wednesday’s meeting shareholders from around the country gathered at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas to hear Tillerson speak about the company’s operations and ask wide ranging questions. One man even asked why there wasn’t an Exxon station in Odessa, which got a laugh from the Exxon head.
But time and again investors turned their attention to climate change, an issue the company had questioned the validity of for years before taking a more agnostic approach of late.
“The crisis is here. The wolf is at the door. The effects of human induced climate change are being felt in every corner of the United States,” Rev. Michael Crosby, an Exxon shareholder, said from the audience.
Shareholders introduced a proposal that Exxon set goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But the company’s board opposed the move, and it failed to achieve a majority vote.
Proposals to limit Exxon board members participation on other corporate boards and prohibit discrimination against gay and lesbian employees also failed.
Follow James Osborne on Twitter at @osborneja.