Memorandum for the Petitioners | 48
5.62. As the fossil fuel industry acquired detailed knowledge of
climate risks, carbon pollution dramatically increased. There has been a
threefold increase in the rate of CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and industry
since the 1960s,'*4 and more than half of all cumulative COz emissions have
occurred since 1988.18
D.3.
In the 1970s, the fossil fuel industry
began
to
publicly
question
the
legitimacy of climate science, as a
business tactic, while internally their
own scientists repeatedly warned of
climate risks
5.63. At the start of the 1970s, the fossil fuel industry began to
manufacture uncertainty around climate science. For example, in 1972, oil
companies submitted a report under the auspices of National Petroleum
Council to regulators at the U.S. Department of the Interior, which “dismissed
the risks of climate change despite explicitly referencing industry-funded
research which provided a greater warning of those risks.”!%
5.64. In addition, the oil industry told regulators there was no reason
to act until the year 2000,'*? when in fact they knew more immediate action
was necessary.
5.65. Executives continued to be warned about climate risks from their
own scientists. For example, in 1977, Exxon’s Corporation Management
Committee was briefed by James Black, a scientific advisor for the company’s
Product Research Division. Mr. Black explained in 1977 that atmospheric
scientists generally attribute increases in CO2 to the combustion of fossil fuels,
and “man has a window of five to ten years before the need for hard decisions
regarding energy strategies might become critical.”!®8
184 According to research cited in a lawsuit brought by commercial fishermen association against fossil fuel
companies. See: Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association v. Chevron Corp. et al., Complaint,
Superior Court of the State of California, case number CGC-18-5711285, 14 November 2018, available at
http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/casedocuments/2018/20181114_docket-CGC-18-571285_complaint.pdf, p. 4, citing C. Le Quéré et al., Global
Carbon Budget 2016, EARTH SYST. SCI. DATA 8, 630 (2016), available at https://www.earth-syst-scidata.net/8/605/20 16/essd-8-605-2016.pdf (last accessed on 12 September 2019). A copy of the case is
attached hereto and made an integral part hereof as Annex “B.”
'85 Id. p. 4, citing Andres, R.J., ef al., A synthesis of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel combustion,
BIOGEOSCIENCES, 9, 1851 (2012), available at http://www. biogeosciences.net/9/1845/2012 (last
accessed on 12 September 2019).
186 Muffett, C., supra note 141, pp. 30-31.
187 See Exhibit “JJJ” to “JJJ-215,” Environmental Conservation (The Oil and Gas Industries/ Volume Two)
by National Petroleum Council, dated February 1972, p. 12.
188 See Exhibit “KKKKK” to “KKKKK-33,” The Greenhouse Effect; J.F. Black, Products Research
Division, Exxon Research and Engineering Co., dated 06 June 1978, cover note, p. 2.
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