(SYDNEY)– Community members have delivered barrels of mock oil to Malcolm Turnbull’s office today to shine a light on the Prime Minister’s investments in ExxonMobil — the oil company now being investigated by the New York Attorney General’s office for a major climate cover-up dating back to the 1970s.
“We are here today to call on Malcolm Turnbull to dump his stakes in ExxonMobil,” said Isaac Astill, a divestment campaigner with 350.org Australia. “With the Paris Climate talks around the corner, it hardly inspires confidence that Mr Turnbull is invested in the very company that not only helped to fuel the climate crisis, but spent decades misleading the public about the threats its products pose to our future.”
It was recently revealed that, In 1977, 11 years before James Hansen made climate change a public issue, Exxon conducted the very first research that proved fossil fuels cause global warming. But, instead of releasing the information, they ran campaigns of misinformation and denial that helped to delay a global response to climate change.
“Just as the tobacco industry did before them, Exxon knew that if they released the serious threats confirmed by their own research, the public would demand an alternative. Because of Exxon’s greed we’re now staving off the growing consequences of climate disruption. Any investment in ExxonMobil is at odds with the climate leadership we need to see from Malcolm Turnbull in Paris and back home in Australia,” concluded Astill.
Last week, Senator Larissa Waters joined other international public officials in writing to the US Attorney General urging her to initiate a Federal Investigation into Exxon’s actions on climate. Senator Water’s letter followed an announcement that the New York Attorney General’s office has also begun a sweeping investigation of ExxonMobil to determine whether the company lied to the public about the risks of climate change.
**High resolution images available here**
Contact: Charlie Wood 0427 485 233