FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 24, 2018
Today, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil for defrauding shareholders by downplaying the expected risk of climate change to its business.
CIEL President Carroll Muffett issued the following statement:
Today’s announcement that the state of New York has filed suit against ExxonMobil for misleading investors about the risks of climate change should send a wakeup call to markets and board rooms around the world that the risks of continued investment in fossil fuel companies are significant, material, and can no longer be ignored. Building on three years of investigation and more than two million pages of company documents, the Attorney General’s suit presents a compelling case that Exxon has consistently misled investors and shareholders about the risks of climate change to the company’s products, profits, assets, and future.
The allegations in the New York complaint echo and further substantiate what CIEL and others have been warning for years: the climate crisis poses profound financial and regulatory risks for Exxon and other fossil fuel companies, and these companies are not being candid about those risks with investors and shareholders.
The New York suit alleges that Exxon actively and repeatedly misled investors about the potential risk posed by climate regulation and the necessary phase out of fossil fuels, which will pose a fundamental threat to the company’s operations, individual projects, assets, and long-term future. As the Attorney General argues, “Exxon’s financial vulnerability to climate change regulation is significantly greater than it led investors to believe.”
The complaint alleges that, despite acknowledging growing awareness of and concern about climate risks among investors, Exxon repeatedly used misleading statements and deceptive economic analyses to assure investors that its business wouldn’t be harmed by climate change and to dramatically overstate the costs to the economy of responding to the climate threat. Significantly, the complaint alleges that these practices were sanctioned at the highest levels of the company and directly implicates former CEO Rex Tillerson in the misconduct.
Today’s suit exposes the reality and growing severity of climate risk for investors who continue to bet on fossil fuels. And it portends a significant new wave in the rising tide of climate litigation facing Exxon and other oil and gas companies.
Contact: Amanda Kistler, Director of Communications – akistler@ciel.org