For green activists such as Friends of the Earth, ExxonMobil is "the number one global warming villain". Its former chairman and chief executive, Lee Raymond, who retired at the end of 2005, was dubbed the "Darth Vader of global warming" and an "enemy of the planet" by environmental campaigners.

The environmental lobby targeted the oil major not so much for what it has done but for what it has said. Although its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is greater than those of competitors such as Royal Dutch Shell or BP, it is in the same order of magnitude