Rex Tillerson, the former US secretary of state under President Donald Trump and ex-chief executive officer of ExxonMobil, has told an industry conference in Houston that he questions whether there is anything humans can do to combat climate change.
Rex Tillerson, the former US secretary of state under President Donald Trump and ex-chief executive officer of ExxonMobil, has told an industry conference in Houston that he questions whether there is anything humans can do to combat climate change.
‘With respect to our ability to influence it, I think that’s still an open question,’ Tillerson told the Argus Americas Crude Summit. ‘Our belief in the ability to influence it is based on some very, very complicated climate models that have very wide outcomes.’
Tillerson’s comments come less than a month after New York’s attorney general said she would not appeal a court ruling rejecting the state’s claim that Exxon misled investors for years about its internal planning for risks associated with climate change.
Within weeks of his promotion to CEO in 2006, Tillerson acknowledged the threat from climate change and the need for alternative fuels to reduce greenhouse gases. However, he was an opponent of climate-friendly shareholder resolutions and carbon cap-and-trade systems. He also was a leading proponent of fracking.
Tillerson told the summit that he had believed for a long time that climate change ‘is a very serious matter’. However, scientists should be allowed to continue their work on global warming without fear that their funding will be cut off if they come to ‘the wrong conclusion’, he added.
He went on to say that the goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) is ‘fine’, but that modelling the impact of certain mitigation efforts on temperatures is more complicated.
‘Whether or not anything we do will ultimately influence it remains to be seen. One day we’ll know the answer to that, but our ability to predict the answer to that is quite complicated.’
