{"id":10429,"date":"2016-11-04T00:35:12","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T04:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/exxon-mobil-and-the-public-showdown\/"},"modified":"2016-11-04T00:38:32","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T04:38:32","slug":"exxon-mobil-and-the-public-showdown","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/exxon-mobil-and-the-public-showdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Exxon Mobil and the public showdown!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oil and gas is one of the major industries that is impacted by climate change, though it plays a pivotal role in influencing climate change as well. In this post, I will discuss the impact of climate change on Exxon Mobil, one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world.<\/p>\n

A. Impact of climate change on Exxon Mobil<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Exxon Mobil faces major implications of climate change, especially [1]:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Physical asset failure:<\/strong>many existing plants and equipment have been designed on the basis of historic climatic conditions and may not withstand changing environmental conditions. Fluctuating temperatures can affect efficiency and performance of physical assets leading to transport disruption, damaged buildings and increased operational delays and costs.<\/li>\n
  2. Employee health and safety risks:<\/strong>volatile working conditions in extreme environments and physical assets not suitable for changing climatic conditions may potentially impact the health and safety of employees; hence, compromising Exxon\u2019s employer and public liability insurance covers<\/li>\n
  3. Drop in value of financial assets:<\/strong> Potential investors and stakeholders are placing greater importance on the business impacts as insurance costs could potentially rise because of greater chances of physical plant damage and the current reported value of proved reserves is also affected<\/li>\n
  4. Damage to corporate reputation:<\/strong>failure to monitor and report the impacts of climate change is increasingly likely to harm Exxon\u2019s reputation with stakeholders as the risk of turning to litigation increases<\/li>\n
  5. Increased pressure on water resources:<\/strong> changing rainfall patterns, water shortages, poor water quality, drought and flooding are significantly increasing the demand for water. Growing competition for available resources could create operational problems and create conflicts with local communities for Exxon in locations where they rely heavily on water for production.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    One example that crystallizes few of the aforementioned threats (especially 1,2, and 4) [2]<\/strong><\/p>\n