(Adds comments from Exxon, Chevron)
By Ron Bousso and Susanna Twidale
LONDON, June 1 (Reuters) - Europe's top oil and gascompanies urged governments around the world to introduce apricing system for carbon emissions, as governments meet inBonn, Germany, on Monday to work on a U.N. deal to fight climatechange.
Criticised for not doing enough to tackle climate change,the chief executives of BG Group, BP, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil andFrance's Total said carbon pricing "would reduceuncertainty and encourage the most cost-effective ways ofreducing carbon emissions widely."
In a joint statement, the companies acknowledged "thecurrent trend" in greenhouse gas emissions is too high to meetthe United Nation's target for limiting global warming by nomore than 2 degrees.
"Our industry faces a challenge: we need to meet greaterenergy demand with less CO2. We are ready to meet that challengeand we are prepared to play our part," the leaders of the sixcompanies said.
"We firmly believe that carbon pricing will discourage highcarbon options and reduce uncertainty that will help stimulateinvestments in the right low-carbon technologies and the rightresources at the right pace."
NOTABLE ABSENTEES
U.S. oil majors ExxonMobil and Chevron chosenot to take part in the initiative, an industry source said.
Exxon said it was aware of the letter. Like Chevron, Exxonsaid it works with the International Petroleum IndustryEnvironmental Conservation Association (IPIECA), a trade group,to develop a common position for climate change mitigation.
"It's clear that there is a difference of views on each sideof the Atlantic," Patrick Pouyanne, Total's Chief Executive,told reporters during a news briefing.
He said he and his counterparts from BP, Shell and Statoilhad once met at a roundtable in Oslo and agreed on the Europeaninitiative.
"Instead of waiting for the smallest common denominator, wegot convinced it was worth making a commitment as European oilmajors, as we command a significant share of the oil market,without necessarily waiting for an American to come on board."
Pouyanne said he was in talks with the two U.S. oil majorshowever and that he hoped that one of them would join theEuropean initiative quickly.
In May, Ken Cohen, Exxon's head of public policy, wrote ablog that said a "revenue-neutral carbon tax," a scheme thatshares similarities with carbon pricing, would be better atreducing greenhouse gas emissions than mandates.
The letter from the European companies was first publishedby the Financial Times on Sunday.
Climate Group, a non-profit advocacy, urged the world'sbiggest economies to respond positively to the initiative.
"This is a symbolic moment, and demonstrates an important ifnot universal shift. It reflects a growing realisation withininfluential sectors of the fossil fuel industry of a need toadapt to both market and climate realities," Mark Kenber,Climate Group chief executive, said in a statement.
Setting a price for each ton of carbon that emitters produceis meant to encourage companies to adopt cleaner technologiesand shift away from using fossil fuels, primarily coal.
China is the world's biggest carbon emitter.
The U.N. and World Bank have been strong advocates forpolicies that shift the responsibility to polluters to pay forcarbon emissions.
"Business used to wait for governments for policyperfection, they are no longer waiting. They are moving forward,providing support and encouragement to national andinternational actions, because addressing climate change istheir best policy for business continuity," Christiana Figueres,head of the U.N. climate change secretariat, said at a carbonmarket event in Barcelona last week.
According to a report published by the World Bank last week40 nations and over 20 cities, states and regions now have aprice on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, covering around 12percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, or theequivalent of nearly 7 billion tonnes of CO2.
The value of global schemes to price carbon, includingtrading schemes and taxes, totaled almost $50 billion as ofApril 1, the World Bank said.
Governments from more than 190 nations from June 1 to June11 will work towards streamlining a draft text of a U.N. deal tofight climate change due to be agreed in Paris inDecember. (Additional reporting by Anna Driver in Houston, ErnestScheyder in North Dakota, Michel Rose in Paris; Rishika Sadam inBengaluru; editing by Terry Wade, Jason Neely, Louise Heavensand Bernard Orr)
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