Paris

EXXONMOBIL misled the public for decades about the danger climate change poses to a warming world and the company's long-term viability, according to a peer-reviewed study, released on Wednesday, of research and statements by the US oil giant.

An analysis of nearly 200 documents spanning decades found that four-fifths of scientific studies and internal memos acknowledged that global warming was real and caused by humans, while the same proportion of hundreds of paid editorials in major US newspapers over the same period cast deep doubt on these widely accepted facts.