A climate responsibility scorecard released this week by the Union of Concerned Scientists shows that none of the world’s leading fossil producers “has made a clean break from disinformation on climate science and policy,” the organization reports.
The research tracks the performance of Arch Coal, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Consol Energy, ExxonMobil, Peabody Energy, and Shell for their willingness to renounce climate disinformation, “plan for the world’s commitments to fight climate change,” support fair and effective climate policies, and disclose climate risks to investors. On each of the criteria, UCS rated the companies on a five-point scale—from advanced to good to fair to poor to egregious.
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On the whole, the research paints an unimpressive picture: while two of the companies, BP and ConocoPhillips, have introduced climate-related policies (mostly having to do with their political spending), none of the eight scored better than fair on recognition of global climate commitments or climate risk disclosure, and only Shell reached a fair grade on renouncing climate disinformation.
Across the four criteria, UCS rated six of the companies’ performance poor, the other two—Chevron and ExxonMobil—egregious.
“Major fossil fuel producers bear a particular responsibility for climate change,” yet “many of these companies have worked to systematically block laws or regulations that would reduce heat-trapping emissions, in some cases by spreading disinformation about climate science,” UCS notes. “It’s time for fossil fuel companies to be held accountable for their climate actions.”
