4
• The oil industry was expressly warned of the potential severity of
climate risks by its own consulting scientists in 1968 and repeatedly
thereafter.
• Numerous industry documents demonstrate these risks were
communicated by industry scientists to executives at the highest levels
of the industry over the ensuing decades.
• The oil industry held early patents on numerous technologies that might
have reduced climate change risk.
• Even while blocking public action to address climate change, oil
companies took steps to protect their own assets from climate risks.
This divergence between industry communications to the public and
industry action to safeguard their own investments began as early as the
1970s and is well established by the 1980s.
• Notwithstanding their own best information, leading oil companies and
industry associations actively participated in or funded climate
misinformation efforts for decades through media intended to reach
wide audiences of consumers, investors, and the general public.
In the nine months since the Smoke and Fumes synthesis report was released,
these findings have been extended and buttressed through additional research
by CIEL and others, including through the report A Crack in the Shell, which
is discussed more fully herein.
Q8:
A8:
Q9:
A9:
Are you familiar with the Petition filed by Greenpeace, along with thirteen
(13) non-profit organizations and eighteen (18) individuals, before the
Philippine Commission on Human Rights requesting for an investigation
of the Carbon Majors for human rights violations or threats thereof
resulting from the impacts of climate change?
Yes.
How did you become familiar with said Petition?
CIEL was one of several expert organizations approached to provide advice
and support to the petitioners in conjunction with the filing of the original
petition in 2015. CIEL submitted an opinion and annex in support of the
Petitioners in February 2017. CIEL also collaborated with other amici expert
organizations in the submission of a Joint Summary of the Amicus Curiae
briefs, which summarizes the key findings of messages of the individual
submissions.
Q10: Given your background and extensive experience in climate, energy,
human rights, and civil litigation matters as mentioned in your brief bio
and Curriculum Vitae (Annex “A” hereof), what can you say about the
Petition, if any?
A10: The Commission’s inquiry is of critical importance first and foremost to the
people of the Philippines, who have suffered devastating impacts from
anthropogenic climate change and who will continue to suffer new impacts
for decades or centuries to come. Those whose lives have been affected most
directly and most acutely by climate change have both an urgent need and a
fundamental right to access to information and access to justice. That right