By Ron Bousso
HOUSTON, March 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. energy secretaryblasted renewable fuels champions on Wednesday while the head ofRoyal Dutch Shell Plc urged the energy sector to focuson global efforts to cut carbon emissions, reflecting a yawningtrans-Atlantic gap on climate issues.
Speaking at the CERAWeek conference in Houston, Shell CEOBen van Beurden outlined an ambitious plan to reduce theAnglo-Dutch company's carbon footprint and expand in renewables,and called on others to follow.
"The energy landscape is changing fast. So we must change,where change is what the world needs," van Beurden said.
Shell and European peers including BP Plc, France'sTotal SA and Norway's Statoil are becomingincreasingly active in low-carbon energy and are vocalsupporters of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Until recently,climate has been less prominent in strategy presentations fromU.S. rivals Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp.
The United States, under former President Barack Obama,helped negotiate the Paris agreement which calls for a gradualshift to renewable energy by the end of the century. PresidentDonald Trump decided to withdraw last year.
Van Beurden gave an unusually strong-worded speech callingclimate the biggest challenge facing the energy sector.
"There may not be total unity behind the Paris Agreement anylonger, but there is no other issue with the potential todisrupt our industry on such a deep and fundamental level."
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry struck a starkly differenttone, blasting the 2015 agreement to limit global warming. Perrysaid it was "immoral" to say people should live without fossilfuels.
"We are passionate about renewable energy. But the world,especially developing economies, will continue to need fossilfuels, as over a billion people on the planet live withoutaccess to electricity," Perry said.
Perry extolled growing U.S. energy independence, as a boomin onshore shale drilling led to a rapid growth in oil as wellas natural gas, the least polluting fossil fuel.
The rise of gas at the expense of dirtier coal helped theworld's biggest economy sharply reduce its carbon emissions overthe last decade, as gas displaced much domestic coal demand.
"The lesson is clear (that) we don't have to choose betweengrowing our economy and caring for our environment, by embracinginnovation over regulation we can benefit from both," Perrysaid. Perry said at a later panel that Trump thought that thecosts were not worth staying in the Paris agreement.
Executives at the Houston conference repeatedly notedgrowing demand for fossil fuels, and downplayed the overallviability of renewable energy or electric vehicles, notingemissions would continue to rise even if there was 100 percentadoption of electric vehicles.
On Wednesday, Mary Barra, chief executive officer of GeneralMotors Co, said the company's "commitment to anall-electric, zero-emissions future is unwavering, regardless ofany modifications to future fuel economy standards." She saidCongress should expand tax credits for electric vehicles.
Other executives spoke of moving to carbon capturetechnologies and carbon taxes. Robert Dudley, president of BP,said Tuesday that "at some point in the future a price on carbonhas to be part of this answer."
The projected growth of oil demand is "definitely not inline with the Paris climate goals," said International EnergyAgency Executive Director Fatih Birol, saying the industry muststart using carbon capture sequestration (CCS) technologies.
In New York on Wednesday, Exxon Mobil Chief ExecutiveOfficer Darren Woods echoed Perry's words at the company'sinvestor day, noting developing nations need solutions togenerate more electricity.
Like others, Woods said Exxon advocates a carbon tax tolimit emissions.
"By and large, we don't see enough incentives to grow CCS inthe marketplace," Peter Trelenberg, Exxon's manager ofenvironmental policy and planning, said.
Few in Houston were as emphatic as van Beurden, who outlinedhow Shell is moving to meet its targets to halve carbonemissions by 2050. Steps include limiting emissions fromoperations and boosting natural gas production to reach 75percent of company oil and gas output.
"Over time, this net carbon footprint ambition willtransform our company's product mix," van Beurden said.
(Reporting by Ron Bousso; additional reporting by ErnestScheyder in New York; Writing by David Gaffen and Ron Bousso;Editing by David Gregorio and Lisa Shumaker)
