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By Ernest Scheyder
HOUSTON, April 21 (Reuters) - The oil and natural gasindustry cannot ignore climate change and must support work tohelp curb its effects through a carbon tax, increased naturalgas production and other means, Statoil ASA ChiefExecutive Eldar Sætre said on Tuesday.
It was the strongest stance yet from the leader of a majoroil producer on the need to limit carbon emissions. Some majorenergy companies, especially in Europe, have been pushing for anindustry-coordinated response to stem climate change.
"We recognize and fully acknowledge the climate issues andwant to take our part of the responsibility to find solutions,"Sætre said in an interview on the sidelines of the IHS CERAWeekconference in Houston, the world's largest annual gathering ofoil executives. "We want to be the most carbon efficient oil andgas company out there."
Sætre used a keynote speech at the conference to double downon the theme, telling a room of hundreds of global energyindustry players that action must be taken on climate change,otherwise "we risk becoming an industry that neither gets accessnor acceptance."
The sentiment was reflected by executives at Britain's BP and France's Total SA during smaller sessionsearlier in the conference.
Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, while acknowledgingcarbon emissions concerns, stopped short of embracing Sætre'sphilosophy.
"We recognize the (climate change) policy is important tothe public," Tillerson told a CERAWeek panel. "We need tosomehow reflect that."
The conference comes just days after Calpers, the largestAmerican public pension fund, asked the U.S. Securities andExchange Commission to require energy companies to publishspecific data on climate change risks.
CARBON TAX
Sætre, who took the reins at Statoil two months ago, touteda Norwegian tax of roughly $65 per ton of carbon dioxide as apossible global model, noting it has helped cut Norway'semissions to roughly half the global average.
Moving forward, Sætre said increased natural gas use, whichcuts coal consumption, can help slash carbon emissions. He alsorenewed a Statoil pledge to eliminate flaring, the wastefulburning of natural gas at well sites, by 2030.
Yet even while taking a major policy stance on climatechange, Sætre said he has no plans for Statoil to dramaticallychange its business model.
"There's no way the world is getting out of oil and naturalgas production," he said. (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Terry Wade and DavidGregorio)
