The last time I travelled to Houston, one item alone was top of the agenda for oil companies: climate.

From sit downs with executives and onstage panels, to conversations in hallways and evening drinks, the industry’s role in tackling emissions (or lack thereof) was the dominant theme the World Petroleum Congress three months ago.

But as Granholm’s recent comments make clear, the narrative has shifted. The war in Ukraine and the soaring prices it has triggered mean energy security has bumped climate down the agenda.

Still, executives are keen to burnish their environmental credentials to investors and to press politicians for a seat at the table when it comes to tackling emissions.

Darren Woods, CEO of Exxon Mobil, said the industry faced “two vitally important challenges: meeting the world’s energy needs and addressing climate change”—and should be given a role in deciding the approach to tackling both:

“With the challenge that we have with respect to managing climate change, I think the call is even greater for industry and governments to collaborate to make sure that the policy is being put in place and the direction that we’re going is thoughtful and balanced.”

Ryan Lance, ConocoPhillips CEO, was among many big names pushing for a carbon tax to shift the burden down the chain to consumers.

“We think the best way to impact the demand side of the equation is to make consumers understand the choices that they’re making.”

Lance also attacked the idea that oil producers should be responsible for so-called scope 3 emissions, those from the burning of their products.

“We think it’s irrational to hold our company or companies in our industry responsible for scope 3 emissions. Those are consumer-led choices that are in the consumers making those decisions.”

But it was Tengku Muhammad Taufik, CEO of Malaysian state-owned Petronas, who put the industry’s position most succinctly: “We are not the villains in this piece,” he said. “We’re part of the solution.”

This article is an excerpt of Energy Source, a twice-weekly energy newsletter from the Financial Times.

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