BAKU, Azerbaijan — The chief executive of Exxon Mobil, one of the world's largest corporate emitters of greenhouse gases, has publicly urged President-elect Donald Trump not to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, warning that such a move would severely damage international efforts to curb carbon emissions.
Darren Woods, speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations climate summit (COP) in Azerbaijan, told The New York Times that a global framework is essential for managing emissions. “We need a global system for managing global emissions,” he said, adding that the Trump administration could apply a “common sense” approach to climate policy, echoing the president-elect's campaign rhetoric.
Woods also criticized the federal government for failing to provide sufficient incentives for oil and gas companies to transition toward renewable energy. “The government role is extremely important and one that they haven’t been successfully fulfilling, quite frankly,” he told the Times.
His comments come as Trump has vowed to again pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, a treaty he previously abandoned during his first term, and has promised to expand fossil fuel drilling, a policy he has summarized as “drill, baby, drill.” Trump has also pledged to dismantle the Green New Deal, an environmental plan he has derided as the “green new scam.”
While Woods did not directly endorse Trump's agenda, he expressed concern about the unpredictability of the president-elect's governing style, which he said could harm the business environment. “I don’t think the stops and starts are the right thing for businesses,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “It is extremely inefficient. It creates a lot of uncertainty.”
His remarks highlight a growing anxiety within the fossil fuel industry over the potential economic fallout of abrupt policy shifts, even as Trump's promises to loosen environmental rules could benefit oil and gas producers in the short term.
Exxon Mobil's public stance is notable given its own environmental record. Earlier this year, the Carbon Majors Database, which tracks emissions from major polluters, identified the company as the largest investor-owned contributor to global carbon emissions among a list of 122 entities. Despite its reputation, the firm has pledged to spend approximately $3 billion this year on developing alternatives to fossil fuels, according to the Times.
Environmental scientists have repeatedly warned that the planet is approaching a critical threshold if climate change continues unabated. The potential U.S. withdrawal from the Paris accord, combined with a rollback of domestic environmental protections, could accelerate that trajectory, a reality that even some industry leaders appear to acknowledge.
Woods' comments also come at a time when many U.S. states are already experiencing severe drought conditions, a phenomenon linked to climate change. According to a recent report, 48 of the 50 states are facing drought, underscoring the tangible impacts of a warming planet.
Whether the president-elect will heed the advice of an oil executive remains uncertain, but the public appeal from one of the industry's most powerful figures signals that the stakes are high not only for the climate but for the stability of the energy sector itself.
