ExxonMobil is promising up to $1oom over the next 10 years to US government laboratories to research technologies that could cut greenhouse gas emissions, as it seeks to show that it is responding to the threat of climate change. The largest listed US oil group will be giving the money to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and National Energy Technology Laboratory to work on technologies including advanced biofuels and ways to capture and store carbon emissions.
Darren Woods, Exxon’s chief executive, said: “Unfortunately, the technology does not exist today to meet the growth in demand for energy while reducing emissions in line with the goals of the Paris agreement.” In its R&D spending, he added, Exxon was “trying to do our part” to help develop those technologies.
The announcement comes as Exxon faces pressure from investors over its strategy on climate change. The company denied shareholders a chance to vote at its annual meeting on May 29 on a proposal that it should set targets for cutting its greenhouse gas emissions. The state of New York and the Church of England, which had taken the lead on that proposal, are now backing an effort to persuade the company to appoint an independent chairman. The commitment to the US national laboratories, if paid at the rate of $1om a year, would represent a little under 1 percent of Exxon’s research and development budget of $1.12bn last year.
Exxon already has a range of research partnerships with 80 universities and has been working on technologies for reducing emissions, including new techniques for carbon capture and genetically modified algae to produce fuel in commercially viable quantities. It said last year that it planned to set up one or more demonstration plants by 2025 to produce 10,000 barrels a day of diesel and jet fuel from algae, and suggested there could be rapid growth in production after that.