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Documents show Shell grappled with climate change years ago

Documents obtained by De Correspondent show that Shell Oil Co. studied climate change in the 1980s. De Correspondent

Two decades ago, a group of researchers envisioned a violent storm ripping through the East Coast with such force that it would transform young people into climate activists, spark lawsuits and cause government leaders to turn on fossil fuel companies. They were only off by two years. They also worked for Shell Oil Co. In 1998, Shell researchers wrote an internal memo about future scenarios that could harm their business. They determined that “only a crisis can lead to a large-scale change in this world,” according to the memo, recently uncovered by De Correspondent with a trove of company documents.

According to the documents, Shell recognized in the 1980s that it played a role in global warming and that the threat from rising temperatures was growing. The research determined that the company generated 4 percent of the world’s carbon emissions in 1984, from its production of oil, gas and coal. In a 1988 internal report, marked “Confidential,” Shell researchers noted that “the main cause of increasing CO2 concentrations is considered to be fossil fuel burning.” By 1988, internal deliberations showed that Shell believed the energy industry had a role to play in climate policy.

“With very long time scales involved, it would be tempting for society to wait until then to begin doing anything,” said the 1988 document. “The potential implications for the world are, however, so large, that policy options need to be considered much earlier. And the energy industry needs to consider how it should play its part.”

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