Energy majors call for carbon pricing

Major oil and gas companies BG Group, BP, Eni, Shell, Statoil and Total have made a call to governments around the world and to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to introduce carbon pricing systems and create clear, stable, ambitious policy frameworks that could eventually connect national systems. These would reduce uncertainty and encourage the most cost effective ways of reducing carbon emissions widely.

The six companies set out their position in a joint letter from their chief executives to the UNFCCC Executive Secretary and the President of the COP21. This comes ahead of the UNFCCC’s COP21 climate meetings in Paris this December and echoed calls made earlier this year at a speech at the Energy Institute’s IP Week by Shell CEO Ben van Beurden.

The chief executives* write: ‘Our industry faces a challenge – we need to meet greater energy demand with less CO_2. We are ready to meet that challenge and we are prepared to play our part. We firmly believe that carbon pricing will discourage high carbon options and reduce uncertainty that will help stimulate investments in the right low carbon technologies and the right resources at the right pace. We now need governments around the world to provide us with this framework and we believe our presence at the table will be helpful in designing an approach that will be both practical and deliverable.’

A separate letter to the media released at the same time praised the role that natural gas can play in reducing emissions.

Some oil major companies were missing from the list of authors; notably Exxon Mobil, which has refused to enter the debate on climate change.

*Helge Lund, BG Group; Bob Dudley, BP; Claudio Descalzi, Eni; Ben van Beurden, Shell, Eldar Sætre, Statoil; Patrick Pouyanné, Total.