ExxonMobil has nothing to hide in terms of EU lobbying

Our corporate giving report is a US based report, covering tax exempt organizations that receive support in a given year. We have not to date prepared a European giving report. We do however provide similar support to numerous charities across the EU, which have interests in a range of areas. These independent organizations are at liberty to publicize the sources of their funding. The Brussels office is a corporate member of the following organizations: EPC, CEPS, The Lisbon Council, as well as Friends of Europe.

Over the years the company has supported major projects at such institutions as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural Resource Economics, Batelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Princeton University, Charles River Associates, the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction, the International Energy Agency Greenhouse Gas R & D Program, Yale University, The University of Texas, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.

Readers of EUobserver may wish to read the recent extensive interview with EurActiv, given by Sherri Stuewer, vice president for safety, health and environment, and Ken Cohen, vice president for public affairs. It provides further insight into ExxonMobil's views and actions on climate policy.

Advanced energy technology development

For our part, ExxonMobil is taking action to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions today and to support the development of advanced energy technologies with the potential to significantly reduce future emissions. These include working with manufacturers of automobiles and commercial industrial engines on research and development programs that could yield fuel economy improvements in internal combustion engines by as much as 30 percent, with lower corresponding emissions.

We are also supporting the Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) at Stanford University with a charge to accelerate the development of commercially viable energy technologies that can lower greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale. GCEP's focus includes hydrogen production, storage and use; biomass and solar energy; carbon dioxide capture and storage; and advanced transportation and coal technologies. ExxonMobil helped launch the $225 million project in 2002. GCEP is the largest privately-funded, long term research program of its type in the world.

Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions through efficiency and best practices with steps taken to improve energy efficiency at our facilities since 1999 that have resulted in the avoidance of 11 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions last year alone - the equivalent of taking about 2 million cars off the road. We are working to identify and implement additional measures to more than double these reductions in the near future.

ExxonMobil is partnering with the US Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in its aim to save more than 6 billion gallons of fuel annually in the US freight transport system through the EPA's "Smartway" Transport Partnership. ExxonMobil was the first petroleum company to join and recently became a charter member of EPA's Natural Gas Star International Program which expands to international operations the technologies and practices that have reduced methane emissions in the US by six percent over a 1990 baseline.

In addition, through a 2003 industry-wide commitment by the American Petroleum Institute, ExxonMobil is improving the efficiency of its refining operations, to gain a 10 percent or more improvement between 2002 and 2012.

We are also partnering with the European Commission to study Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in the recently announced CO2ReMoVe program, a ground-breaking research initiative to establish scientific monitoring systems and determine the reliability of geological carbon dioxide storage. Our support for CO2ReMoVe, builds on more than three decades of involvement in the development and utilization of CCS-related technologies.

The author, Lisa Boch-Andersen, is a senior advisor in ExxonMobil's European Union Affairs & Media Relations team based in Belgium.