Statement 03 December 2018
My name is Kristin Casper. I serve as Greenpeace International’s litigation
counsel for the climate justice and liability campaign.
During the morning of 29 August 2018 national inquiry hearing, Honorable
Commissioner Cadiz asked Mr. Richard Heede about the development and funding
of the Carbon Majors research. Since I have first-hand knowledge of the research
due to my former role as legal counsel for Greenpeace International, I provided an
oral statement to the Commission in the afternoon of 29 August 2018. This statement
was given based on my knowledge of the development of Mr. Heede’s independent
Carbon Majors research and the involvement of Greenpeace International in
commissioning verification of the methodology and results. Honorable
Commissioner Karen Lucia S. Gomez-Dumpit requested that my oral statement be
submitted in writing for the record. I trust that this written statement provides the
necessary and additional information for the Honorable Commission to fully conduct
its inquiry.
I understand that the Climate Justice Programme (CJP), an international nonprofit organisation working to combat climate change, in collaboration with Friends
of the Earth International (FOEI), commissioned research by Richard Heede in 2003.
Mr. Heede was the principal and often sole investigator for Climate Mitigation
Services at this time. As documented in publicly available information, Mr. Heede’s
early research appeared in FOEI’s 2004 report entitled, “Exxon's Climate
Footprint.”1 I further understand that CJP made a decision to focus upon the broader
set of Carbon Majors in 2004, partly as a result of Mr. Heede’s initial research on
Exxon.2 It is notable that many years passed before CJP began to actively worked
with Mr. Heede on the Carbon Majors research.
In 2011, CJP and Greenpeace International began the process to
commission Mr. Heede to write the Carbon Majors: Accounting for carbon and
methane emissions 1854-2010 Methods & Results Report (marked as UUUU to
UUUU-103).3 To my knowledge, this was Greenpeace International’s first formal
Friends of the Earth International, Exxon Mobil’s Historic Contribution to
Climate Change Assessed for the First Time, 29 Jan. 2004, available at:
https://www.foei.org/press/archive-by-subject/climate-justice-energy-press/exxonmobils-historic-contribution-climate-change-assessed-first-time; Friends of the
Earth International, Exxon’s Climate Footprint: The Contribution of ExxonMobil
to Climate Change Since 1882, Jan 2004, available at:
https://friendsoftheearth.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/exxons_climate_footprint.
pdf.
2 Heede, Richard, ExxonMobil Corporation: Emissions Inventory 1882-2002:
Methods & Results, 17 Dec. 2003, available at:
http://www.climatemitigation.com/climate-mitigation-services-publications.html.
3 Richard Heede, Carbon Majors: Accounting for carbon and methane emissions
1854-2010 Methods & Results Report, 7 April 2014, available on Greenpeace
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