Memorandum for the Petitioners ] 51
described “ the effects of climate on agriculture,” as well as “ potentially
catastrophic events” including direct impacts, such as the melting of the
Antarctic ice cap causing “a rise in sea level on the order of 5 meters” 199 and
indirect impacts, such as potentially significant “stress associated with climate
related famine or migration .»200
5 .73. As the fossil fuel industry acquired sophisticated scientific
knowledge of climate change, including the role of fossil fuel products and
the dire impacts on people and ecosystems, there were many opportunities for
respondents to be part of the solution. But instead of using the scientific
knowledge gained over the previous decade to shift the world away from the
use of fossil fuels, some of the respondent Carbon Majors carefully presented
information to the public so as to protect their social license and maximize
profit in a climate-changed world.
.
2
r
In 1984, respondent Shell had the
ability to measure the company’s
contribution to climate change,
and for a brief moment in history,
it started to inform the public
about the deadly and devastating
consequences of climate change
r
5.74. Like respondent ExxonMobils’s internal report in 1982,
respondent Shell’s confidential 1988 “Greenhouse Effect” report, unearthed
by a Dutch journalist Jelmer Mommers of De Correspondent, shows that the
company was well aware of the potential catastrophic impacts and negative
social and economic consequences of climate change, including that “[ljarge
low-lying areas could be inundated (e.g. Bangladesh),” “shifts in ranges and
migration patterns,” and “acidification of seawater.”201 The company’s list of
potential costly damages from climate change goes on and on, and many of
the impacts outlined in that report are already being experienced by Filipinos
today.
5.75. Respondent Shell knew that it had a specific responsibility for
these impacts. In the same report, the company calculated the CO2 emissions
from oil, gas, and coal sold by the Shell Group of companies i.e. all Shell
entities and found that, in 1984, Shell was responsible for 4% of the CO2
emitted worldwide from fossil fuel combustion .202
—
—
http://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/documents/1982%20Exxon %20Primer%20on%20C02%20
Greenhouse%20 Effect.pdf ( last accessed on 12 September 2019).
199
/</., pp. 12- 13.
200
Idp. 14.
201
See Exhibit “NNN” to “NNN-45, Shell Greenhouse Effect Working Group ( 1988), The Greenhouse
Effect , Prepared for Shell Environmental Conservation Committee, pp. 26-28.
202
Idp. 57.
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