One of the world's largest oil companies accurately forecast how climate change would cause global temperature to rise as long ago as the 1970s, researchers claim. ExxonMobil's private research predicted how burning fossil fuels would warm the planet but the company publicly denied the link, they suggest. The academics analysed data in the company's internal documents. ExxonMobil denied the allegations. "This issue has come up several times in recent years and, in each case, our answer is the same: those who talk about how "Exxon Knew" are wrong in their conclusions," the company told BBC News.