What did the companies do instead of making the morally and legally responsible actions to warn the public and address the climate pollution from their products? Unfortunately, we know now how the story went instead. Over decades and even today, Carbon Majors like Shell and ExxonMobil choose to wage a war on climate science and climate action. For [nearly] 3 decades, they’ve invested in a broad, deep, expensive, and sophisticated public campaign of deception, denial, and delay in an attempt to sow doubt in climate science and undermine meaningful action— a legacy we are living with today.4 They penetrated into the halls of academia and the US Congress, they sat at the tables of international fora, stifled renewable energy technologies, covered pages of elite media, even while inside their own halls, they were quietly using climate change projections into their operations. They were careful to protect their own infrastructure from rising seas, but chose to leave the most vulnerable people exposed to the impacts of unabated warming. Why? To protect their profits— although, they might say it was all for our prosperity so we could live modern lives. More of their favorite narratives. They chose to pit profit against human rights like this was the only choice on the table. Imagine if Shell and other Carbon Majors had chosen another path when it started researching and understanding the risks climate change posed to human beings and the planet in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, or even in 2000. What if they instead shared it with innovators, collaborated with governments to take meaningful, urgent, and effective action on the risks and harms they had identified? How many lives could have been spared? How many people could have avoided the kinds of indignities and loss we heard about from our witnesses if different decisions were made? What are they doing about it today, now that they know better? Well, actions speak louder than words -- and they are saying a lot these days, but not doing better, and certainly not enough. Their investments in renewable energy are measly at best. Carbon Majors like Exxon and Shell continue to invest in developing new dirty projects like in the Patagonia,5 as if there is no end in sight to fossil fuel production. Shell tells its investors oil and gas See e.g. Union of Concerned Scientists, “The Climate Deception Dossiers” (2015), available at https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/fight-misinformation/climate-deception-dossiers-fossilfuel-industry-memos#.XBFktBNKj-Y, last accessed on 12 December 2018. 5 Brian Walzel, “Producers Set Sights on Vaca Muerta” E&P Hart Energy (11 April 2018), available at https://www.epmag.com/producers-set-sights-vaca-muerta-1690866, last accessed on 12 December 2018. 4 Closing Statement for the Petitioners | 5