Friday 16 October 2015

Ten major international energy companies declared their support for a climate agreement to be reached at a United Nations summit in Paris starting next month.

Producers including BP Plc, Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and Petroleos Mexicanos -- who together account for almost 20 percent of the world's oil and gas output -- will support policies consistent with the goal of keeping the increase in average global temperatures to within 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), Total SA said in a statement before a meeting in Paris Friday.

"Our shared ambition is for a 2 degree Celsius future," the chief executive officers of the companies said in a joint statement. "Over the coming years we will collectively strengthen our actions and investments to contribute to reducing the greenhouse gas intensity of the global energy mix. Our companies will collaborate in a number of areas, with the aim of going beyond the sum of our individual efforts."

The group, called the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, includes BG Group Plc, BP, Eni SpA, Pemex, Reliance Industries Ltd., Repsol SA, Saudi Aramco, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Statoil AG and Total.

Their declaration follows a joint letter that was sent to the top UN official in charge of climate talks earlier this year, in which six European oil companies split from their U.S. peers and banded together to call for governments to agree to carbon pricing. The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative does not include any U.S.-based companies.

Exxon Mobil Corp. said in May it wasn't going to "fake it" when it came to its views on climate change, arguing that technology can provide solutions to any impacts that result from increasing global temperatures.

The UN climate change summit -- known as COP21 -- will be held in Paris from Nov. 30 until Dec. 11. Envoys from more than 190 nations aim to broker a new agreement to fight global warming at this meeting, with an overarching goal of limiting the temperature rise since preindustrial times to 2 degrees Celsius.

Source: Bloomberg