Exxon privately Predicted Global Warming Correctly  only to then Spend Decades Denying it to Protect its Core Business,rectly and skilfully” only to then spend decades publicly rubbishing such science in order to protect its core business, new research has found. A trove of internal documents and research papers has previously established that Exxon knew of the dangers of global heating from at least the 1970s, with other oil industry bodies knowing of the risk even earlier, from around the 1950s. They forcefully and successfully mobilized against the science to stymie any action to reduce fossil fuel use.A new study, however, has made clear that Exxon’s scientists were uncannily accurate in their projections from the 1970s onwards, predicting an upward curve of global temperatures and carbon dioxide emissions that is close to matching what actually occurred as the world heated up at a pace not seen in millions of years. Exxon scientists predicted there would be global heating of about 0.2C a decade due to the emissions of planet-heating gases from the burning of oil, coal and other fossil fuels. The new analysis, published in Science, finds that Exxon’s science was highly adept and the “projections were also consistent with, and at least as skillful as, those of independent academic and government models”. Geoffrey Supran, whose previous research of historical industry documents helped shed light on what Exxon and other oil firms knew, said it was “breathtaking” to see Exxon’s projections line up so closely with what subsequently happened. “This really does sum up what Exxon knew, years before many of us were born,” said Supran, who led the analysis conducted by researchers from Harvard University and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “We now have the smoking gun showing that they accurately predicted warming years before they started attacking the science. These graphs confirm the complicity of what Exxon knew and how they misled.” The analysis found that Exxon correctly rejected the idea the world was headed for an imminent ice age, which was a possibility mooted in the 1970s, instead predicting that the planet was facing a “carbon dioxide induced ‘super-interglacial’”. Company scientists also found that global heating was human-influenced and would be detected around the year 2000, and they predicted the “carbon budget” for holding the warming below 2C above pre-industrial times. Armed with this knowledge, Exxon embarked upon a lengthy campaign to downplay or discredit what its own scientists had confirmed. As recently as 2013, Rex Tillerson, then chief executive of the oil company, said that the climate models were “not competent” and that “there are uncertainties” over the impact of burning fossil fuels.                 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/12/exxon-climate-change-global-warming-research        

AND THE CORPORATIONS WILL STOP AT NOTHING TO ACHIEVE THEIR AIMS!  HOW THE ENVIRONMENTAL LAWYER WHO WON A MASSIVE JUDGMENT AGAINST CHEVRON LOST EVERYTHING. Steven Donziger won a multibillion-dollar judgment against Chevron in Ecuador. The company sued him in New York, and now he’s under house arrest.Tim Hirschel-Burns is a second-year student at Yale Law School is a member of Law Students for Climate Accountability, found out about Donziger’s house arrest in an article that ran in The Intercept in January 2020. “I remember reading that and thinking this can’t be true,” he said. But his research into the case confirmed that Chevron and Gibson Dunn had personally targeted the lawyer after Donziger’s team won in Ecuadorian court. “I found it wild that Chevron could withdraw its assets from Ecuador and not pay anything.”Now he and others in the group are launching a campaign to get law students around the country to renounce Gibson Dunn for its representation of Chevron in Ecuador and in the litigation against Donziger, as well as for its larger role in the climate crisis. “Gibson Dunn does fossil fuel work on a ton of extremely objectionable projects,” said Hirschel-Burns, who pointed to the law firm’s work on 18 legal cases in which they represent climate polluters or clients who otherwise exacerbate climate change, such as Dakota Access LLC, the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline. The Chevron case may be most devastating for the plaintiffs in the Amazon, who never received their judgment despite being left with hundreds of unlined waste pits and contaminated water and soil from millions of gallons of spilled crude oil and billions of gallons of dumped toxic waste. Everything that’s happened to Donziger “is small potatoes compared to the fact that a US court has rendered the damage the company actually did as totally irrelevant,” said Nesson. But the latest twists and turns in the Chevron case may also be particularly bad news for climate activists. A mere 20 companies are responsible for a third of the greenhouse gases emitted in the modern era; Chevron ranks second only to Saudi Aramco among them. And it’s increasingly clear that addressing the climate crisis will require confronting these mega-emitters, whose resources for litigation dwarf that of any individual                       https://theintercept.com/2020/01/29/chevron-ecuador-lawsuit-steven-donziger/

Doughnut Design for Business to function within Ecological Boundaries - DEAL’s guide to redesigning businesses through Doughnut Economics.......Core workshop- tool overview......This tool sets out how businesses can engage with Doughnut Economics. Built for use by workshop facilitators, it guides businesses through an action-oriented workshop that is practical but ambitious, and aimed at catalysing innovations in their deep design . By focusing on the deep design of business, the workshop invites companies to engage in a transformative agenda of becoming regenerative and distributive in their strategies, operations, and impacts, so that they help to bring humanity into the Doughnut........Central to the tool is the concept of enterprise design. This is explored through five design layers: a company’s Purpose, Networks, Governance, Ownership, and Finance........These design layers powerfully shape the strategic decisions and operational impacts of businesses, and ultimately determine whether or not businesses can transform to become part of a regenerative and distributive future. By diving into five layers of deep design, this tool reveals both design blockages that prevent transformative action, and design innovations that can unlock its possibility. You can view the tool here as Google Slides or download as a PDF here (or see Downloads section below). Paper.......The tool is accompanied by a paper, What Doughnut Economics Means for Business, which contains background context and further detail on the core concepts as well as additional examples of business design. The paper was co-authored by DEAL and Centre for Economic Transformation. To read the paper, click here or see the Downloads section below.  Who it is for........The tool is for any facilitator of a workshop who is able to engage an individual business or group of businesses in exploring their deep design. The tool can be used by organisations or individuals who can gather multiple businesses for a workshop. It can also be used by those working within or with an individual business. The tool is designed to support workshops run by a broad range of people and organisations, including: business networks, start-up incubators, enterprise accelerators, think tanks, NGOs, certification organisations, business founders, trade unions, consultants, business schools, impact investors, community groups and thought-leaders and intrapreneurs within businesses. How long it takes........The duration for a workshop is suggested as 4-5 hours. It can be broken up into two or more sessions, and can also be extended to give additional time for the activities and related discussions. The format.......The workshop can be held in-person or online. Some workshops will bring together multiple companies, while others will bring together a group from within a single business. All activities across this tool can also be conducted in pairs or by an individual applying it to their own business.  Some key considerations and options are offered at the end of the tool.  Materials you needThe canvases that you need are provided both as printable pdfs and in an online Miro version (see Annex A towards the end of the slides). If you plan to hold the workshop in-person, you will additionally need a workshop space where you can share a presentation and work in groups, as well as basic workshop materials like sticky notes and pens. You can also run this workshop online, using video conferencing to present the slides and hold the discussions, alongside Miro to run the activities.  What the facilitator needs to know......The key requirement is that the facilitator is enthusiastic and ambitious in exploring transformative ideas that challenge the possibilities of today’s business world, and is curious about the way that innovations in the deep design of business can unlock such ideas. This tool shouldn’t be used to provide specific advice to businesses, but instead used to support and facilitate their journey. It is useful, however, if the facilitator is aware of some existing alternative enterprise designs that are relevant to participating businesses (e.g. employee ownership, social enterprise, steward ownership).  If you are a consultant or other organisation wanting to use this tool with your clients, make sure that you meet DEAL’s criteria (see DEAL’s policy for consultancies and professional advisors). DEAL's policy for business.......To balance openness with protecting the integrity of the concept of Doughnut Economics, DEAL has created a policy applying to businesses (including consultants in their work with business clients). This policy contains seven main principles......read more. Downloads

Oil and Gas Industry's Expansion Plans Decried as an attack on 'Livable Planet'. Fossil fuel giants are moving to ramp up extraction as new data shows that the industry has been emitting three times more planet-heating pollution than it claims. "Keeping these oil and gas resources in the ground is the bare minimum of what is needed to keep 1.5°C  attainable."The IEA made clear in its May 2021 report that no new oil and gas fields can be exploited if the world is to avoid climate catastrophe. But according to Urgewald, 96% of upstream fossil fuel companies (655 out of 685) are planning to expand their operations, and short-term expansion plans have increased by 20% since last year. According to Urgewald, 512 of these companies are currently "taking active steps to bring 230 billion barrels of oil equivalent (bboe) of untapped resources into production before 2030." If these fossil fuels are removed from the ground and burned, an additional 115 billion tonnes of heat-trapping carbon dioxide equivalent will be pumped into the atmosphere by the end of the decade. That's 30 times more greenhouse gas pollution than Europe generates each year. Urgewald's report comes one day after Climate Trace revealed in a separate analysis (graphically awesome!) that global emissions from oil and gas production are up to three times higher than reported. "The outcome of our calculations is truly frightening," Fiona Hauke, senior oil and gas researcher at Urgewald, said in a statement.                      https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/11/10/oil-and-gas-industrys-expansion-plans-decried-attack-livable-planet                       Check out the video .......  New data shows: Oil and gas companies are on a massive expansion course – 655 out of 685 upstream companies on GOGEL (96%) have expansion plans.          https://youtu.be/XO6uw_z7gVk                                  ......and.......                INTEGRITY MATTERS: NET ZERO COMMITMENTS BY BUSINESSES, FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, CITIES AND REGIONS REPORT FROM THE UNITED NATIONS’ HIGH-LEVEL EXPERT GROUP ON THE NET ZERO EMISSIONS COMMITMENTS OF NON-STATE ENTITIES-  United Nations’ High‑Level Expert Group on the Net Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities....... It’s Time to Draw a Red Line Around Greenwashing. . The International Energy Agency now believes we are at an inflection point that will accelerate the shift from fossil fuels towards a cleaner and more secure future. We need to make sure that happens. We know what we need to do: peak global emissions in just three years, by 2025, and cut emissions in half in less than eight years, by 2030. Money needs to move from funding fossil fuel infrastructure and instead be invested at scale in clean energy. The decisions made by governments and non-state actors today, tomorrow, and each and every day after will determine whether we meet this goal, and whether we meet it in a way that enhances equity, justice, empowers women, and respects Indigenous rights. Though countries need to take the lead, solving the climate crisis is not up to them alone. Non-state actors— industry, financial institutions, cities and regions —play a critical role in getting the world to net zero no later than 2050. They will either help scale the ambition and action we need to ensure a sustainable planet or else they strongly increase the likelihood of failure. The planet cannot afford delays, excuses, or more greenwashing.  Our report also specifically addresses the core concerns raised by citizens, consumers, environmentalists and investors around the use of net zero pledges that make greenwashing possible. Our recommendations are clear that........Non‑state actors cannot claim to be net zero while continuing to build or invest in new fossil fuel supply. Coal, oil and gas account for over 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions. net zero is entirely incompatible with continued investment in fossil fuels. Similarly, deforestation and other environmentally destructive activities are disqualifying........Non-state actors cannot buy cheap credits that often lack integrity instead of immediately cutting their own emissions across their value chain. As guidelines emerge for a high-integrity voluntary credit market, credits can be used above and beyond efforts to achieve 1.5°C aligned interim targets to increase financial flows into underinvested areas, including to help decarbonize developing countries.......... Non-state actors cannot focus on reducing the intensity of their emissions rather than their absolute emissions or tackling only a part of their emissions rather than their full value chain (scopes 1, 2 and 3)........Non-state actors cannot lobby to undermine ambitious government climate policies either directly or through trade associations or other bodies. Instead they must align their advocacy, as well as their governance and business strategies with their climate commitments. This includes aligning capital expenditures with net zero targets and meaningfully linking executive compensation to climate action and demonstrated results..........To effectively tackle greenwashing and ensure a level playing field, non‑state actors need to move from voluntary initiatives to regulated requirements for net zero. Verification and enforcement in the voluntary space is challenging. Many large non-state actors— especially privately held companies and state-owned enterprises —have not yet made net zero commitments which raises competitiveness concerns. This picture is changing fast, but it still requires the resolve of governments and regulators to level up the global playing field. This is why we call for regulation starting with large corporate emitters including assurance on their net zero pledges and mandatory annual progress reporting.      https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/high-level-expert-group     Full Report.......https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/high-level_expert_group_n7b.pdf