Climate change policies present ‘little risk’ to Exxon, company says

Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday said that global policies to fight climate change are likely to pose “little risk” to its investments.

The nation’s largest oil company released a report, under pressure from activist investors, analyzing how the company would be affected by policies that aim to keep global warming at or below 2 degrees Celsius, the goal mentioned in the Paris climate accord.

Exxon said that some of its liquids assets — oil and natural gas liquids — “may not be attractive investments” with such aggressive policies, but those represent only about 5 percent of the company’s property by value.

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Meanwhile, natural gas use would grow substantially under such a scenario, due mainly to gas’s lower carbon dioxide footprint for electricity use when compared with coal.

A 2-degree scenario would cause “abundant demand growth of this cleaner-burning fuel in the future,” Exxon said, which would help its bottom line.

Exxon has been under pressure for years to be more transparent about how climate change affects its operations. Shareholders voted last year to require the regular disclosures.

The company — whose former CEO Rex Tillerson is President Trump’s secretary of State — supports fighting climate change, specifically through a carbon tax.