Three of the biggest U.S. oil companies pledged $300 million toward research into lowering climate-change pollution as they joined an industry group led by European rivals.
Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp. will join the Oil & Gas Climate Initiative and expand an existing $1 billion fund for carbon-reduction ventures, the group said in a statement Thursday. The move brings Big Oil’s biggest names into a united front as climate activists and investors ratchet up the pressure on fossil-fuel providers.
The OGCI was founded in 2014 by the heads of BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Saudi Aramco and seven others based in Europe and Asia, but major U.S. producers had refused to join. Thursday’s U-turn puts them at odds with U.S. President Donald Trump, who is trying to relax rules governing greenhouse-gas emissions and last year vowed to pull the country out of the landmark Paris climate agreement.
“It will take the collective efforts of many in the energy industry and society to develop scalable, affordable solutions that will be needed to address the risks of climate change,” Exxon Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said in the statement. “This dual challenge is one of the most important issues facing society and our company.”
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