* Pressure mounts on energy firms over Paris climate goals
* BP backed climate resolution filed with investors
* Shell has led the way with commitment to cut emissions
* Some investors want BP to match Shell's tougher targets
* Major shareholders expect BP to set own stricter strategy
* GRAPHIC: BP's emissions rose in 2018 https://tmsnrt.rs/2W0zkEf
By Ron Bousso and Simon Jessop
LONDON, May 17 (Reuters) - BP will face pressure at ameeting next week to set tougher targets to combat climatechange, the latest signal from investors that they want the oiland gas industry to do more to clean up its act.
After BP's 2018 carbon emissions rose to their highest insix years, the London-based major is being lobbied by activistsand an increasing number of shareholders to ensure itsoperations are in line with goals set by the 2015 Paris climatedeal to curb global warming.
BP has already backed a resolution being put to investors onTuesday for it to be more transparent about its emissions, linkexecutive pay to reducing emissions from BP's operations andshow how future investments meet Paris goals.
The motion, proposed by BP and a group of 58 shareholdersholding 10 percent of its shares, known as Climate Action 100+,is expected to pass at BP's annual meeting in Aberdeen.
But some investors want BP to go further and follow the leadof rival Royal Dutch Shell, which bowed to years oflobbying and set the toughest industry targets for cuttinggreenhouse gas emissions.
"BP now is at the same stage as Shell was two to three yearsago," said Eric Rutten, head of the responsible investmentscommittee of Aegon, BP's biggest Dutch investor with sharesworth $26 million in the $142 billion firm, Refinitiv data show.
His investment company is backing a resolution drawn up byactivist group Follow This that would require BP to reduceemissions not just from its own activities but also from thefuel and products it sells to customers.
While the resolution stands little chance of passing, eventhose not backing it still want BP to step up its commitments.
"We'd like to see the company set its own targets," AshleyHamilton Claxton, head of responsible investment at Royal LondonAsset Management, a top-20 BP investor with a 0.4 percent stake.
"We'd consider supporting more stringent targets, such asthose proposed by Follow This, if the board fails to makemeaningful progress," she said, adding her company would abstainover the Follow This resolution rather than vote against it.
BP said in a statement it welcomed engagement withshareholders and wanted "to be a constructive partner in theenergy transition. We're working on this with governments,society and our investors."
NOT ALONE
BP is not alone in coming under pressure.
Follow This and other activists have proposed a similarresolution to shareholders in U.S. energy firm Chevron,while a Follow This motion was rejected by investors in Norway'smajority state-owned Equinor this week.
Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest listed energy firm,has also been pushed by some investors to set emissions targets,although the regulator ruled in April that it did not have toput it to shareholders' vote.
BP has said it aims to keep emissions from its operationsflat in the decade until 2025, despite strong growth in itsbusiness that has been rebuilding after facing $67 billion infines and clean-up costs following the disastrous 2010 Gulf ofMexico oil spill.
It also invests about $500 million a year on low carbonenergy and technologies such as wind and solar.
Emissions from BP's operations, known as Scope 1 and 2, fellin 2018 to 54.4 million tonnes from 56.6 million tonnes in 2017.
But BP's overall carbon dioxide emissions, including fromthe fuels and chemicals it sells to customers, known as Scope 3,rose in 2018 to the highest level since 2012, reflecting higheroil and gas output.
Scope 3 emissions climbed to 437 million tonnes in 2018 from412 million tonnes a year earlier, according to Refinitiv data.
Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley has repeatedly opposedsetting Scope 3 reduction targets, as proposed by the FollowThis resolution, saying consumption is outside BP's control.
Bruce Duguid, head of stewardship at investment firm HermesEOS, which was part of the Climate Action 100+ group, alsorecommended opposing the Follow This resolution, saying BPneeded "flexibility to set its own strategy".
The U.N.-backed Paris climate agreement aims to slashgreenhouse gas emissions, produced mostly by burning fossilfuels, to net zero by the end of the century in order to limitglobal warming to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius.
David Patt, a senior corporate governance and public policyanalyst at Legal and General Investment Management, BP's fourthbiggest investor, said the Climate Action 100+ resolution wouldhelp investors push BP and other energy firms "into being moreambitious" in the transition to a low carbon world.
It was not the end of the process, though.
"I see this as the building blocks for deeper conversationin things like Scope 3 in order to make sure the company issuccessful in the future," Patt told Reuters.
(Reporting by Ron Bousso and Simon JessopEditing by Edmnd Blair)