ExxonMobil has formally requested that a federal judge expedite the upcoming trial of an Israeli private investigator, citing an urgent need to determine who funded a 2015 cyberattack on American climate activists so the oil major can claim the resulting drop in environmental organizing as a nature-based transition credit.
The trial centers on the illegal hacking of activists who exposed Exxon’s early knowledge of the climate crisis. While the fossil fuel giant has officially denied paying for the spear-phishing campaign, court filings indicate the company is closely monitoring the proceedings to ensure the digital harassment isn't being claimed by a rival energy firm. The 2015 cyberattacks successfully locked several dozen prominent critics out of their inboxes, preventing them from purchasing commercial flights to the COP21 summit in Paris—a quantifiable reduction in aviation fuel that Exxon maintains is rightfully theirs.
We have reviewed our sustainability reports and our historical dark-money filings, and we simply cannot locate the purchase order for these cyber-mercenaries. However, if a third party successfully neutralized our critics’ ability to travel, we are legally obligated to report those unburned metric tons to our shareholders.
Verra, the world’s leading carbon-credit registry, confirmed Thursday that it had received a provisional filing from Exxon seeking to classify the Israeli private investigator’s server farm as a verified carbon sink. The filing argues that by systematically destroying the digital infrastructure of frontline organizers, the hackers achieved a greater net reduction in global climate advocacy than Exxon’s own $40 million public relations budget.
The trial is scheduled to conclude just weeks before the Securities and Exchange Commission’s next quarterly climate disclosure deadline. If the court fails to name a definitive sponsor for the cyberattacks, Exxon has indicated it will simply roll the hackers' operational footprint into its 2030 net-zero pledge, alongside its unproven direct-air capture facilities and an upcoming offshore lease sale.