Exxon Mobil Corp. he said the prospect of the world reaching net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 is “highly unlikely” because of the fall in living standards that this scenario would entail.
The Texas oil giant made the comments in a regulatory filing that argued against Chief Executive Officer Glass Lewis’ view that the cost of phasing out oil and gas operations would be a significant financial risk. The International Energy Agency’s net-zero emissions scenario, which models the phase-out of most fossil fuels by 2050, has little effect on reality, Exxon said.
“Glass Lewis apparently believes that the probability of the IEA’s NZE scenario is far beyond what the IEA itself claims – that the world is not on the path to NZE and that this is a very aggressive scenario,” he said Exxon. “Society is highly unlikely to accept the degradation of global living standards required to permanently achieve a scenario like the IEA NZE.”
Governments’ climate pledges would be below net zero by 2050 even if they were achieved, meaning there is little chance of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above levels pre-industrial, according to the IEA. Exxon has a net zero “ambition” for 2050, but is investing heavily in new projects, both fossil fuel and low carbon, that it believes will provide the flexibility to respond to multiple energy transition scenarios.
Exxon urged shareholders to reject a resolution, backed by Glass Lewis, that the company should produce a report at its May 31 annual meeting on the cost of shutting down oil and gas operations that are no longer needed.
