ExxonMobil Corp. has funneled nearly 16 million U.S. dollars between 1998 and 2005 to a network of 43 advocacy organizations that seek to confuse the public on global warming science, according to a report published on Wednesday by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"ExxonMobil has manufactured uncertainty about the human causes of global warming just as tobacco companies denied their product caused lung cancer," said Alden Meyer, UCS' Director of Strategy & Policy. "A modest but effective investment has allowed the oil giant to fuel doubt about global warming to delay government action just as Big Tobacco did for over 40 years."

The report said that ExxonMobil-funded organizations consist of an overlapping collection of individuals serving as staff, board members, and scientific advisors that publish and re-publish the works of a small group of climate change contrarians.

According to UCS, ExxonMobil has used the laudable goal of improving scientific understanding of global warming -- under the guise of "sound science" -- for the pernicious ends of delaying action to reduce heat-trapping emissions indefinitely. ExxonMobil also exerted unprecedented influence over U.S. policy on global warming, from successfully recommending the appointment of key personnel in the Bush administration to funding climate change deniers in Congress.

However, Elaine Wauchope, a spokeswoman from ExxonMobil told Xinhua that they have given the serious response to the report from UCS. "From our initial review of the 63-page report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, this clearly is yet another attempt to smear our name and confuse the discussion of the serious issue of CO2 emissions and global climate change," ExxonMobil said in a statement provided for Xinhua.

"What is clear today is that greenhouse gas emissions are one of the factors that contribute to climate change, and that the use of fossil fuels is a major source of these emissions", ExxonMobil clarified in the statement.

ExxonMobil said that for now we should support climate research to reduce uncertainties about global warming and pace policy responses; promoting energy efficiency; deploying existing technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and supporting research and development of new, low-GHG (greenhouse gases) technologies.

Source: Xinhua