Exxon Mobil Corp. has announced its intention to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in the oil giant's first long-term pledge to curb carbon output.
The company said on Tuesday that Exxon will develop roadmaps for its crude refineries, chemical plants and other facilities over the next two years to eliminate Scope 1 and 2 emissions. The plan does not include carbon spewed when customers use Exxon products such as gasoline and jet fuel, or Scope 3 emissions that comprise the bulk of oil-industry pollution.
Exxon's pledge falls short of those of European peers like Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc, but it is a major step for the largest Western oil explorer. It comes less than a year after shareholders replaced one-fourth of Exxon's board after an activist campaign that criticized the company's approach to climate change.
Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said during an interview with CNBC on Tuesday that this is more than just a pledge. We've been doing work for several years to make sure we had a line of sight on how to achieve this. Exxon shares rose 1.5% to $72.91 at 9: 36 a.m. in New York, lifting the 12 month advance to 49%.
Woods said that the roadmaps will include low- and high-cost measures to reduce pollution. He said that the high-cost measures could be augmented by government incentives and technological advances.
Exxon s plants and other assets released the equivalent of 111 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020, a decrease of 6% from the previous year and the lowest in a decade, the company said in a report. Exxon and the rest of the industry were forced to ratchet back fuel production because of the global pandemic.
Exxon s Scope 3 emissions in the same year totaled 540 million tons, almost five times larger than Scopes 1 and 2, and was almost five times larger than that of Scopes 1 and 2.
Europe s oil giants were the first to make net zero commitments, and the U.S. drillers have been playing catch-up. In October, Chevron Corp. adopted net zero aspiration while the companies of ConocoPhillips, Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Pioneer Natural Resources Co. announced plans to curb carbon by mid-century.
Woods said that Exxon s board emphasised the importance of communicating what it is doing to reduce emissions.
He said that we ve pulled back a bit and wait until we're actually doing it to make an announcement. Helping folks understand what we're trying to do and the work we're doing today is an important emphasis that the board has given us. Today s plans build on several low-carbon announcements over the past few months. In December, Exxon laid out new plans to reduce emissions by 2030, based on the creation of its Low Carbon Solutions business earlier in the year. The company plans to spend $15 billion on less emissions investments through 2027, a significant step up from previous years.