Daily Times

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres skewered oil firms on Wednesday for having “peddled the big lie” about their role in global warming, telling the World Economic Forum that they should be held accountable. Addressing a room-full of the world’s business and political elite, Guterres drew a parallel between the actions of oil companies and those of tobacco companies that have been hit by massive lawsuits over the effects of cigarettes. “We learned last week that certain fossil fuel producers were fully aware in the 1970s that their core product was baking our planet,” Guterres said.

A study published in the journal Science last week said ExxonMobil had dismissed the findings of its own scientists on the role of fossil fuels in climate change. “Just like the tobacco industry, they rode rough-shod over their own science,” Guterres said, referring to lawsuits that found that cigarette companies had hidden the dangers of their products. “Some in Big Oil peddled the big lie. And like the tobacco industry, those responsible must be held to account.” In 1998, US states won a landmark settlement against tobacco companies worth $246 billion aimed at recovering the costs of treating smokers from the harmful effects of cigarettes.