90
1. “Emissions traced to the 90 largest carbon producers contributed
approximately 57 percent of the observed rise in atmospheric carbon
dioxide, nearly 50 percent of the rise in global average temperature,
and around 30 percent of global sea level rise between 1880-2010;”434
2. Emissions linked to the Carbon Majors “were responsible for roughly
16 percent of the global average temperature increase from 1880 to
2010, and around 11 percent of the global sea level rise during the
same time frame;”435 and
3. Emissions tied to the Carbon Majors “from 1980 to 2010, a time when
fossil fuel companies were aware their products were causing global
warming, contributed approximately 10 percent of the global average
temperature increase and about 4 percent sea level rise.”436
B. The Carbon Majors Had Early Awareness, Notice, or
Knowledge of their Products’ Adverse Impacts on the
Environment and Climate System
Petitioners allege that the fossil fuel industry already had actual knowledge of the
harms resulting from the extraction, sale, and use of their products in the 1960s,
if not earlier. Petitioners presented: 1) copies of internal documents437 from the
434
Exhibit R to R-8, Profile and statement of Peter Frumhoff, PhD, dated 16 March 2018, at 4.
435
Id. at 5.
436
Id.
437
Exhibit NN to NN-3, Exxon Research and Engineering Company (Corporate Research
Science Laboratories) dated 2 September 1982; Exhibit OO to OO-11, Inter-Office
Correspondence dated 31 October 1977 (Re: Environmental Effects of Carbon Dioxide);
Exhibit FFF to FFF-30, American Petroleum Institute Medical Advisory Committee 28th Meeting (1959);
Exhibit GGG to GGG-74, Energy Resources (A Report to the Committee on Natural Resources)
dated December 1962; Exhibit HHH to HHH-13, Final Report (Sources, Abundance and Fate
of Gaseous Atmospheric Pollutants) prepared for the American Petroleum Institute (1968);
Exhibit III to III-40, Supplemental Report (Sources, Abundance, and Fate of Gaseous
Atmospheric Pollutants) prepared for the American Petroleum Institute dated June 1969;
Exhibit
JJJ
to
JJJ-215,
Environmental
Conservation
(The
Oil
and
Gas
Industries/Volume Two) by National Petroleum Council dated February 1972;
Exhibit KKK to KKK-16, Exxon Research and Engineering Company Letter to Mr. Turpin dated 6 June
1978; Exhibit LLL to LLL-20, Review of Environmental Protection Activities for 1978-1979 (Imperial
Oild Limited); Exhibit MMM to MMM-1, Exxon Research and Engineering Company Letter to
Mr. Natkin dated 2 September 1982; Exhibit NNN to NNN-45, The Greenhouse Effect (Prepared for
Shell Environmental Conservation Committee) dated May 1988 (completion of the study onApril 1986);
Exhibit JJJJJ to JJJJJ-5, Accomplishment in Air Pollution Control by the Petroleum Industry by
Dr. Jerry McAfee dated 15 November 1958; Exhibit KKKKK to KKKKK-33, The Greenhouse
Effect, J.F. Black, Products Research Division, Exxon Research and Engineering Co.
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