17/06/2004

The new head of Shell, one of the world’s largest oil companies, has confessed that the threat of climate change has made him ‘really very worried for the planet.’ In an interview published in today’s Guardian, Ron Oxburgh the chairman of Shell argues that: “No one can be comfortable at the prospect of continuing to pump out the amounts of carbon dioxide that we are pumping out at present…with consequences that we really can’t predict but probably are not good.”

Oxburgh’s comments stand in stark contrast to the pronouncement made last week by the chairman of ExxonMobil (aka Esso) Lee Raymond (see Raymond Rants ) in which Raymond again expressed his scepticism about climate change and defiantly declared that “carbon dioxide emissions from greater fossil fuel use will climb."

These comments further widen the fault line between the world’s more progressive oil companies, such as Shell and BP, and the old dinosaur of the fossil fuel world: Esso. BP and Shell acknowledge the reality of climate change, support Kyoto and are beginning to invest in alternative energy sources such as wind, wave and solar power. Esso meanwhile, refuse to invest in alternative sources of energy, pour scorn on Kyoto and are still – despite all the evidence - denying the link between the burning of their fossil fuel products and climate change. As Lee Raymond puts it: “We in ExxonMobil do not believe that the science required to establish this linkage between fossil fuels and warming has been demonstrated.”

Will Esso go the way of the dinosaurs as the world leaves them behind in the transition to a fossil-fuel free future? The comments made by Ron Oxburgh today make this prospect look increasingly likely.

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