What is the Exxon CEO doing on a climate podcast?

Zero: The Climate Race

Bloomberg

Technology, Business, Science

4.7 • 219 Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Reporter Akshat Rathi sits down with ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, who made his second-ever appearance at the United Nations climate conference. Woods made the case for why incoming US president Donald Trump shouldn’t exit the Paris Agreement, and should uphold the country’s monumental climate legislation passed under the Biden administration. It’s quite the tone shift for a company that has a well-documented history of sowing doubt about the dangers of global warming. Listen now, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube to get new episodes of Zero every Thursday.

Explore further:

Past episode about what’s at stake at COP29 in the aftermath of President Trump’s election
Past episode about the infamous fossil fuel lobbyist Don Pearlman and his role in the COP process
Past episode with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on why its green goals are good for business

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks to Kevin Crowley, Jen Dlouhy, Siobhan Wagner, Aaron Rutkoff, Jessica Beck and Ethan Steinberg. Thanks also to the Atlantic Council, the International Chamber of Commerce and Uve Sabirowsky. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Zero. I am Akshatrati. Today, Exxon's new tactic.
0:05.0	An oil CEO walks into a climate conference. No, it's not a joke. Actually, these days
0:23.6	it's not even an uncommon occurrence. But it is still a big deal when that CEO is Darren Woods,
0:30.6	who leads ExxonMobil Corporation. Regardless of where this interview happened, I would have
0:36.6	jumped on the opportunity.
0:38.3	Far too few oil CEOs opened themselves up to journalistic scrutiny.
0:43.3	That it was at a climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, only made it more interesting.
0:49.3	And this was not Darren's first rodeo.
0:52.3	He became the first exon CEO ever to attend a climate conference at COP28 in Dubai last year.
0:58.5	When we spoke, it was only days since the U.S. election result had come out.
1:03.4	And Darren had things to say about Donald Trump that I wasn't expecting.
1:07.8	He also had strong ideas about how Exxon can be a positive force on climate.
1:12.6	Now that might seem odd.
1:14.6	It is among the world's largest oil companies and it has increased oil production quite a lot over the last few years.
1:23.6	There is also a well-documented history of companies like Exxon sewing doubt
1:29.3	about climate science to slow down climate action. But something has clearly changed,
1:35.3	and it's worth hearing Darren's take. Welcome everybody to a live taping of the Zero Podcast at COP29. And welcome to the show, Darren.
1:59.0	Thank you. It's good to be here. So here we are in Baku,
2:02.6	and before I get to important questions, let me ask you, what are you doing for fun while you're in
2:08.0	Azerbaijan? People keep recommending to me that I should take a bath in crude oil. It's a thing
2:14.3	that a famous spa offers over here, and I fact-checked it, and it's real.
2:19.3	I'm not doing that.
	...

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