How much responsibility do corporations have for the climate crisis and for stepping up with solutions?
Here at the ISCFC we are committed to promoting personal, community, national and planetary solutions to reduce our environmental impacts and boldly confront the climate crisis. But as individuals, we can feel powerless when there are huge corporations -such as the fossil fuel industry and factory farms– that are disproportionately responsible for carbon emissions of the past and the present.
What should we do about this? Do you agree that corporations should do more? And if so, what does that mean exactly? How do we persuade or impel polluting industries to change their ways?
Corporate responsibility >
Exxon Mobil Climate Disclosure Lawsuit in California
As of October 25th of this year, Exxon Mobil Corporation, the U.S.-based crude oil and natural gas producer and the retail gasoline brand Exxon Mobil, filed a complaint to the U.S. Eastern District of California, saying that pending corporate climate disclosure laws, Senate Bill 253 and Senate Bill 261 would violate its free speech rights and force it to take on blame for climate change. Under Senate Bill 253, large businesses operating in the state of California have to disclose their complete planet-warming emissions and provide their direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions. ExxonMobil takes issue with this bill and perceives the bill as being framed to be inclined to fault large businesses like itself, which have an inherently large greenhouse gas emission production, rather than being focused on maintaining efficiency. Under Senate Bill 261, companies making more than 500 million dollars annually operating in the state of California are required to disclose the financial impact of Climate change on their business and publicly publish steps they would take to address Climate change. ExxonMobil challenges this bill and takes issue with the concept that the law would require it to "speculate about future development" of Climate change. In response to this appeal, the office of California Governor Gavin Newsom said in an email that it was shocking to see how one of the biggest polluters worldwide was afraid of transparency. Do you think that the District court judge will overturn these two Senate Bills or require ExxonMobil to publicly disclose its greenhouse gas emissions and its steps to reduce these emissions? How will this court case potentially set a precedent for future actions in State and National legislatures regarding the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions?