Scientists are even beginning to quantify the Carbon Majors’ contributions to specific climate impacts, to individual extreme weather events. As the largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, the science is telling us that the activities of the Carbon Majors and those of the fossil fuel industry as a whole are linked to the human rights harms Filipinos are experiencing. But did the Carbon Majors know about these risks and harms, did they see this coming? The answer is, again, a reverberating yes. When did they see it coming? They have known for 60 years or more. We learned that the Carbon Majors were aware of the climate risks, and the social and economic impacts associated with their businesses as early as 1954.2 In fact, ExxonMobil (when it was known as Humble Oil) was also leading some of the world’s earliest scientific research into climate change, publishing research that acknowledged the link between fossil fuels and atmospheric carbon dioxide as early as 1957.3 So, not only did they know, they were among the first to know. What’s even more telling is that the industry was even coordinating and sharing that research among themselves. But what did the companies do about this scientific knowledge they possessed? Did the Carbon Majors have an opportunity to avoid or reduce the climate risks posed to the Filipino people? The answer is an unqualified yes. Respondent companies were uniquely placed with the knowledge, capacity, and skills to contribute to avoiding or minimizing the harms, and or threat of harms, being suffered by Filipinos. If the adage held, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better,” do you think there might have been a moment over the past six decades where they could have summoned and shared their knowledge and power, and helped steer our economies and the climate system onto a safer track? Benjamin Franta, “Early Oil Industry Knowledge of CO2 and Global Warming” (2018) 7 Nature Climate Change 1024, available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-03499.epdf?shared_access_token=pjzah7DpLvTpHzKC6tJnR9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0P4fU1pUb7k0a5Ln OE5ZS6C6a7RZ3NHKtxGsOdgHHBipijdyckMqNGCt7v20UfBStXn7urJhqpBnkOrEEg4cBKl28toRgrdYqY_8QwJXcMn236XXSYtNuslXyHqN b8nuU%3D, last accessed on 12 December 2018. 3 Roger Revelle & Hans E. Suess, “Carbon Dioxide Exchange Between Atmosphere and Ocean and the Question of an Increase of Atmospheric CO2 during the Past Decades” (1957) 9 TELLUS 18, available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3402/tellusa.v9i1.9075?needAccess=true, last accessed on 12 December 2018. 2 Closing Statement for the Petitioners | 4