By Stephen Jewkes and Giancarlo Navach
MILAN, March 15 (Reuters) - Italian oil and gas group Enipledged to cut net carbon emissions to zero by 2030 onFriday and promised investors higher returns through a sharebuyback and raised dividend.
State-controlled Eni announced a new business plan on theday of a worldwide student protest against climate change,saying it would grow its green business and invest in plantingforests to capture more than 20 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030.
It said it aimed to install more than 10 gigawatts (GW) ofrenewable capacity by 2030 from 0.2 GW this year.
"We are at the crossroads of a major transformation.Tackling (carbon reduction) will be a strategic priority of ourboard," Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi told analysts.
As Eni presented its plan in Milan on Friday thousands ofschool students in the Italian city joined a worldwide marchcalling for action against climate change.
The oil and gas industry has come under growing shareholderpressure to tackle carbon emissions following the 2015 Parisclimate agreement seeking to reduce net emissions to zero by theend of the century, mostly by lowering fossil fuel burning.
BP and Total have set short-term targets onreducing carbon dioxide emissions. On Thursday Royal Dutch Shellsaid it planned to reduce carbon emissions from itsoperations and product sales by 2 percent to 3 percent in2016-2021.
Eni's target does not include fuels and products it sells tocustomers but Descalzi said it was just a first step.
Eni, the biggest foreign oil and gas producer in Africa,also said it would be investing 1.4 billion euros over the nextfour years in renewable energy projects, mainly solar.
Companies like Shell and BP have accelerated spending onwind and solar power as they seek a bigger role in globalefforts to slash carbon emissions and battle global warming.
FATTER RETURNS
Eni announced a four-year buyback programme with an initialallocation of 400 million euros this year and a 3.6 percent risein its dividend to 0.86 euros in 2019.
The buyback will rise to 800 million euros if Brent goesabove $65 a barrel.
"We will generate some 22 billion euros free cash over theplan in our upstream business, almost double our dividend need,"CEO Descalzi said.
Over the last year the world's top oil and gas companieshave come under pressure to return more cash to shareholders asprofits and oil prices rise after a three-year crunch.
Oil and gas output will grow an average of 3.5 percent peryear to 2025, Eni said, adding it expected 2.5 billion barrelsof oil equivalent of new resources.
At 1306 GMT Eni shares were up 0.44 percent in line withEurope's oil and gas index.(Reporting by Giancarlo Navach and Stephen Jewkes, editing byDavid Evans)