The Rockefeller family, the longest continuous shareholder in ExxonMobil, on Wednesday blasted the world’s biggest listed oil company for failing to recognise the need to move away from oil and gas into alternative fuels.

“We are trying to keep a giant from falling,” said Neva Rockefeller Goodwin, economist and great-granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller, the company’s founder. “ExxonMobil needs to reconnect with the forward-looking and entrepreneurial vision of my great-grandfather.”