A. For decades, Carbon Majors Companies knew or should have known of potential climate risks associated with their productions and operations As documented in the Petition, recent investigations have uncovered extensive evidence regarding the companies’ research into climate change, their knowledge regarding the risks, and their behavior in light of that knowledge. The “greenhouse effect” was first evidenced by John Tyndall in 1859 and received wide attention in works by Svante Arrhenius in the late 19 th and early 20th centuries. In 1917 Alexander Graham Bell wrote “[The unchecked burning of fossil fuels] would have a sort of greenhouse effect,” and proposed the use of alternative energy forms, such as solar. After Guy Callendar published a series of papers on fossil fuel combustion and observed temperature increases beginning in the late 1930s, scientific discussion of the topic steadily grew. In 1956, a New York Times headline stated, “Warmer Climate on Earth May be due to More Carbon Dioxide in the Air.”330 These developments were discussed in public and in the scientific literature, and it is reasonable to expect the Carbon Majors knew or should have known about them. Documentary evidence demonstrates that no later than 1957, at least one of the Carbon Majors - Humble Oil, now ExxonMobil - was aware of and actively investigating climate change.331 Industry records indicate that by no later than 1958, the oil and gas industry was funding research into fossil carbon in the atmosphere as part of a coordinated industry research program.332 By no later than 1968, and repeatedly thereafter, oil industry leaders were explicitly warned by their own scientists of potentially severe climate risks, and of the fossil fuel industries’ contribution to those risks.333 Between 1977 and 1982, scientists at Exxon repeatedly confirmed the scientific consensus that climate change was occurring and that fossil fuel combustion was the primary cause, and communicated those findings to top management. 334 By 1986, internal reports produced by another Carbon Major, Royal Dutch Shell, acknowledged the risk of climate change, noting that “the changes may be the greatest in recorded history.” 335 B. Despite Notice of the Potential Climate Risks Associated with their Products and Operations, Carbon Majors Companies Repeatedly Failed to Adequately Inform the Public of those Risks or to Take Measures to Address Them In light of the foregoing evidence, and extensive additional documentary evidence submitted by Petitioners and amici, the Commission may reasonably conclude that the Carbon 330 Plan B brief, at § 6.4. Annex to Amicus Curiae brief submitted by CIEL, at p. 5, https://businesshumanrights.org/sites/default/files/documents/CHR-NI-2016-0001%20CIEL%20ANNEX%2010.2.17.R.pdf [hereinafter CIEL brief, Annex]. 332 CIEL brief, Annex, at p. 5. 333 Id. at p. 9. 334 Id. at pgs. 10-12. 335 CIEL, SMOKE AND FUMES: THE LEGAL AND EVIDENTIARY BASIS FOR HOLDING OIL COMPANIES ACCOUNTABLE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE, supra note 323, at 15. 331 69