ExxonMobil is in its climate change bunker and won’t let reality in

(The Guardian, 27 May 2016) Still stonewalling, the oil giant banned the Guardian from its AGM this week. But even its shareholders are starting to hear the gale-force winds blowing outside.

W hen one of the world’s largest pension funds tells the biggest oil company on the planet that it faces an existential threat , there are stormy times ahead. The Guardian wanted to give you the latest weather report from inside ExxonMobil’s annual general meeting in Dallas on Wednesday, but the newspaper’s reporter was banned.

Battening down the hatches and whistling as the winds of climate change threaten its business has been the oil giant’s strategy for decades. The problem for ExxonMobil is, the winds are approaching gale force and the people who own the company - its shareholders - are increasingly worried about the damage.

ExxonMobil investors worth $10 trillion backed a motion at the AGM asking the company to tell them what would happen to its bottom line if governments meet their pledge to slash carbon emissions and halt global warming. The company tried to stop shareholders even voting on the motion, until the US Securities and Exchange Commission blew that objection away.

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The Guardian, 27 May 2016: ExxonMobil is in its climate change bunker and won’t let reality in