Technology and Climate Change
As society continues to advance and address multiple important issues – such as alleviating poverty, expanding economic development, and providing billions of people with basic energy access and improved living standards – the demand for affordable and reliable energy across the global economy is expected to grow substantially.
Providing the energy the world needs, while limiting environmental impacts, including the risks of climate change, is an important dual challenge. Advances in technology will be instrumental in providing energy solutions designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the lowest societal cost possible.
Since 2000, ExxonMobil has invested more than $10 billion to develop and deploy higher-efficiency and lower emissions energy solutions across our operations. These emissions reduction programs have eliminated or avoided 400 million tonnes of CO2 which is equivalent to the energy-related CO2 emissions associated with about 55 million U.S. homes.
We also continue to encourage policy that addresses the risks of climate change at the lowest cost to society, through transparent, economy-wide pricing mechanisms that best incentivize and reward new technologies and innovations. We have long supported a uniform price of carbon applied consistently across the economy (such as a carbon tax) as an approach that is consistent with these policy principles.
- ExxonMobil is conducting fundamental research aimed at developing energy solutions that have the potential to provide affordable energy and reduce emissions at a global scale in the key energy-using sectors:
- For the industrial and power sectors, we are researching new CO2 capture technologies as well as improved subsurface CO2 storage capabilities.
- For transportation, we continue to progress research on advanced biofuels and renewable diesel. Supplying lower-emission fuels is part of ExxonMobil's ongoing efforts to help our customers reduce their carbon footprint.
- We are also targeting additional breakthrough low-carbon research in the industrial area.
- Our company employs more than 2,200 Ph.D. scientists who are working to develop breakthrough technologies and help address the risk of climate change.
- ExxonMobil partners with approximately 80 universities around the world to broaden awareness of energy developments and support technology breakthroughs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy efficiency.