This is the first part of DeSmog UK’s series mapping Exxon’s ties to EU think tanks and lobby groups.
Pressure is mounting on ExxonMobil to explain why the oil giant funded climate denial around the world years after its own scientists established global warming was real.
Exxon has a long history of funding climate denial and last September it was revealed that it did so despite a full scientific knowledge about the impacts of manmade climate change in the 1970s’ and ‘80s.
This prompted the New York Attorney General to subpoena ExxonMobil to “determine whether the company lied to the public about the risks of climate change or to investors about how those risks might hurt the oil business.” A similar investigation has also been launched in California.
These revelations tell us what Exxon knew. The investigations in New York and California are asking ‘what did Exxon do?’
Exxon in the EU
So, while the oil giant has been getting a lot of heat in the U.S. for funding climate denial, this DeSmog UK investigation takes these questions across the Atlantic, and asks: what has ExxonMobil been up to in Europe?
The past 10 years are pretty murky when it comes to deciphering ExxonMobil’s climate denial activities in Europe.
In 2007, the oil giant pledged to stop funding climate denial groups in response to pressure from shareholder activists. However, eight years later the company was found to have given more than $2.3m (£1.7m) to an American lobbying group and members of Congress that deny climate change and block efforts to tackle the issue.
It begs the question: has ExxonMobil been up to the same tricks in Europe?
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