Oil firms need to come clean on climate threat

The sector must step up its investments in clean energy and efforts to mitigate climate change or risk being left with expensive, stranded assets, says a new report

Climate change's impact on oil companies' spending is already in the spotlight following investor pressure on ExxonMobil and other big producers to be more transparent. Now, a team led by advocacy group Carbon Tracker has produced a report that aims to spell out what's at stake—and the headline figures don't make great reading for oil bulls. Five of the world's six largest listed oil companies risk wasting more than 30% of potential spending on upstream projects that could be surplus to requirements in a world committed to keeping global warming down to 2°Celsius above temperatures in pre-industrial times, the principal goal of the Paris agreement. Of the majors, Exxon would be hit hardest,