Up Close: ExxonMobil and the IPCC
For more than 25 years, the IPCC has provided periodic assessments of climate change, including information on the causes and impacts as well as potential response strategies. Experts from ExxonMobil have participated in the IPCC since its inception. In October 2014, the IPCC completed its Fifth Assessment Report, which offers an update of materials related to climate science, including the socioeconomic aspects of climate change and its implications for sustainable development. Our scientists contributed to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report in lead author, review editor and reviewer roles. The Fifth Assessment reports high confidence in the scientific certainty of many aspects of climate change, including that atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are rising in response to emissions, the earth’s temperature has warmed over the last century and that the risks associated with climate change will increase with the magnitude of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and temperature increases. The assessment notes that the ability to forecast the magnitude and pattern of future climate change remains less certain and confidence declines when moving from a global to local scale. While the current scientific understanding of climate change leaves some unanswered questions, it is clear that the risks are real and warrant thoughtful action. ExxonMobil employs a risk management strategy and continually strives to improve our understanding of the impacts of climate change. As part of our Outlook for Energy analysis, we project an energy- related carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions profile through 2040. This can be compared with the energy-related CO 2 emissions profiles from various scenarios outlined by the IPCC. When we do this, our Outlook emissions profile approximates the IPCC’s intermediate Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 emissions profile in shape, but is slightly under it in magnitude.
We engage with IPIECA on a number of issues, including climate change risks. Rick Mire, environment, regulatory and socioeconomic manager, has represented ExxonMobil at IPIECA for more than a decade and has served as chair since 2012.
Experts from our organization have participated in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since its inception. Most recently, our scientists contributed to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report in lead author, review editor and reviewer roles. For additional information on the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, see the adjacent Up Close. Our scientists also participated in the work of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, including its work to review the third U.S. National Climate Assessment Report and provide advice to the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Engaging industry ExxonMobil recognizes the growing interest in climate change risks and understands that stakeholders seek a better under- standing of the positions of the oil and gas industry, as well as how individual companies approach the management of climate change risks within their own businesses. IPIECA was established in 1974 at the request of the United Nations Environmental Program. As an active IPIECA member, ExxonMobil engaged with member companies in advance of the December 2015 COP 21 meeting in Paris in order to
help develop a common industry position on global efforts to address and mitigate climate change risks. That work culmi- nated in The Paris Puzzle — a publication on the challenges and responses needed to address the risks of climate change.
IPIECA Paris Puzzle
Recognizing the desire of stakeholders for more accessible and clear information, in 2015 we also took a key role collab- orating with IPIECA and its member companies to create a voluntary reporting framework for oil and gas companies to publish their climate change risk management approach in a simple, straightforward and transparent manner. The resulting framework, which IPIECA will pilot during 2016, covers a wide range of climate-related issues and provides a consis- tent reporting methodology for the oil and gas industry. This framework should enable interested stakeholders to under- stand an individual company’s views on the issues central to addressing climate change risks.
IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report
IPIECA Climate Change Reporting Framework
Managing climate change risks exxonmobil.com/citizenship
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