Press Releases
September 30, 2026
Washington, D.C. — Days before the U.S. Supreme Court will consider Big Oil companies’ arguments to escape trial in one of dozens of climate deception lawsuits, the Center for Climate Integrity is releasing a newly updated collection of 101 fossil fuel industry documents that shows how Big Oil companies have knowingly fueled the climate crisis but deceived the public about the scientific reality and their role in it across seven decades.
“Climate Fraud 101: Big Oil's Climate Deception Explained in 101 Documents, 1957-2026” is a collection of confidential industry planning documents, internal communications and presentations, public reports, speeches made by company executives, patents, and more. “Together, these pieces of evidence provide a vivid picture of the fossil fuel industry’s knowledge of their products’ role in climate change, plans to deceive the public and undermine confidence in climate science, and active efforts to obstruct policy responses that would have helped to address the problem,” reads the introduction.
Big Oil companies currently face dozens of lawsuits from state, local, and tribal governments seeking to hold them accountable for climate deception, several of which are in active discovery. On October 5, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy’s arguments to overturn a ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court that allowed a lawsuit that the City and County of Boulder brought against the companies to move toward trial. The fossil fuel industry has also been lobbying Congress and state lawmakers to pass legislation that would shield them from climate liability entirely.
“Big Oil’s climate fraud is the most consequential corporate deception campaign of all time. These documents are just a sample of the damning evidence of Big Oil’s climate fraud that the fossil fuel industry is desperate to stop a jury of Americans from seeing,” said Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity. “Big Oil is begging the Supreme Court to help them escape accountability as they lobby Congress for total immunity because they fear evidence like this being presented at trial. Communities deserve their day in court. Neither the Supreme Court nor Congress should help corporations escape accountability for harms they’ve knowingly inflicted on communities.”
The 101 documents presented in “Climate Fraud 101” explain Big Oil’s climate deception across the last seven decades:
Beginning in the 1950s, fossil fuel companies helped to shape the emerging field of climate science.
Document 1: In 1957, researchers at Humble Oil (now ExxonMobil) published a study about the “enormous quantity of carbon dioxide” released largely “from the combustion of fossil fuels.”
By the late 1970s, the fossil fuel industry was investing heavily in understanding how the global warming caused by its products would affect the planet.
Document 16: A 1980 American Petroleum Institute presentation given to representatives of Exxon, Texaco (Chevron), Standard Oil of Ohio (BP), and other oil companies explained that “[t]he physical facts agree” on the likelihood of large-scale global climate impacts within 50 years and the potential of “globally catastrophic effects” by 2067.
Over the course of the 1980s, oil and gas companies came to understand that climate change posed an existential business risk.
Document 20: In 1984, an Exxon researcher concluded: “We can either adapt our civilization to a warmer planet or avoid the problem by sharply curtailing the use of fossil fuels.”
Big Oil then launched a multifaceted, coordinated campaign to undermine confidence in climate science before measurable impacts became detectable and the evidence was undeniable.
Document 25: A 1988 confidential Exxon memo stated that it should be the company’s position to “emphasize the uncertainty in scientific conclusions.”
In the 1990s, the fossil fuel industry responded to increased public awareness of climate change by casting doubt on climate science and obstructing efforts to mitigate the impacts of global warming.
Document 46: In 1997, American Petroleum Institute Executive Vice President William O’Keefe testified before Congress that climate change “does not represent a crisis requiring precipitous and dramatic actions to prevent an imminent ecological catastrophe” — in contradiction of the industry’s own research — and said that “[n]othing we do in the next 20 years will have any appreciable impact on the world’s average temperature in 2050 or 2100.”
As the 21st century began, Big Oil downplayed the viability of renewables and a rapid energy transition while framing continued fossil fuel use as sustainable.
Document 71: In 2009, Shell CEO Peter Voser told a London audience that “we cannot address climate change through renewable energy alone” and that “[c]leaner fossil fuels” would need to “shoulder a large part of the burden.”
Starting in the 2000s, Big Oil companies increasingly pushed false solutions such as natural gas and carbon capture and storage (CCS) that they knew could not meaningfully address climate change.
Document 83: A confidential 2018 BP presentation acknowledged criticism that “gas doesn’t support climate goals when you take methane emissions into account.”
Following adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, Big Oil companies began to advertise “net zero” ambitions while they continued to double down on fossil fuels.
Document 93: A confidential 2020 Shell presentation instructed employees: “Please do not give the impression that Shell is willing to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to levels that do not make business sense” and “[p]lease do not imply, suggest, or leave it open for possible misinterpretation that [net zero emissions] is a Shell goal or target.”
That same Shell presentation reminded employees that the oil giant must have accurate messaging because of the “rising number of legal cases including active litigation specifically against Shell and other oil companies related to climate change and its impacts.”