Don’t count on America’s oil giants to join their rivals across the pond in ambitious efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions. On Thursday, Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods dismissed the long-term pledges from Europe’s top crude producers as nothing more than a “beauty competition” that would do little to halt climate change. His comments echo those of Chevron Corp. CEO Mike Wirth earlier this week.
Energy companies need to focus on global, systemic efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, rather than just replacing their own emissions-heavy assets with cleaner ones to make themselves look good, Woods to investors in New York.“Individual companies setting targets and then selling assets to another company so that their portfolio has a different carbon intensity has not solved the problem for the world,” Woods said at Exxon’s analyst day. Exxon is focused on “taking steps to solve the problem for society as a whole and not try and get into a beauty competition.”