June 20, 2019

350.org on Yale Poll revealing majority of people in America support fossil fuel companies paying for climate destruction

Survey backs mounting support for #MakeThemPay demand, climate litigation and lawsuits

Washington, DC — A new survey released by Yale University’s Program on Climate Change Communications today, supported by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), finds that most people in America (57 percent) believe fossil fuel companies should pay for the climate crisis.

In response to this striking survey, Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, 350.org North America Director, issued the following statement:

“The Yale poll underscores the growing public demand to make fossil fuel billionaires — rather than our communities — pay for the climate destruction they’ve caused. Last month, we brought this message to ExxonMobil’s shareholder meeting: #ExxonKnew and accelerated the climate crisis, it’s time to #MakeThemPay. While fossil fuel executives continue their ongoing disinformation campaigns, attempting to create doubt and spread the lie that we are all responsible for climate chaos, we know those most responsible profit while we pay the costs.

“Growing numbers of people across America are demanding accountability for the harm to our communities, and reparations from fossil fuel billionaires who have caused climate destruction. Those least responsible for causing the crisis, especially Black, Indigenous, and people of color, are already hard at work building community-led solutions to protect our health and safety, including New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act that passed just this week.

“Lawsuits for climate damages are on the rise: from Baltimore, Boulder, Louisiana, Rhode Island, and more, to New York’s Attorney General Letitia James taking Exxon to court in October. Millions of people are engaging in September’s climate strikes, and our demand to #MakeThemPay for the climate crisis will only grow louder and more popular in the weeks, months, and years to come. Today’s poll provides another confirmation.”

For more on this poll, read this blog from Peter Frumhoff, the Director of Science and Policy with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Activists outside ExxonMobil’s annual shareholder meeting in Dallas, TX on May 29, 2019

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Contact: Lindsay Meiman, [email protected], (347) 460-9082

Read this release for more on the #ExxonKnew #MakeThemPay shareholder action

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