Six oil and gas majors have urged governments around the world to implement widespread pricing of carbon emissions at home and abroad.
BP, BG Group, Total, Statoil, Eni and Shell said in an open letter ahead of the UN climate change summit in Paris in December that the introduction of widespread charges on CO2 emissions could play a major role in addressing climate change.
“We believe the pragmatic step of implementing a widespread and effective pricing of carbon emissions is critical to realising the full and positive impact natural gas can have,” the letter signed by the six European oil and gas majors said, urging governments to take decisive actions.
The letter further argued that the introduction of widespread pricing of CO2 emissions would drive energy efficiency as demand for hydrocarbons increases worldwide.
“It will benefit all sectors including power, mobility, heating and energy-intensive industries along with renewable energy and natural gas, the cleanest-burning fossil fuel. Market forces will operate to favour the least expensive and most efficient ways of reducing carbon in each country or region,” the companies said.
As one of the cleanest types of fossil fuels, natural gas could play key part in meeting global carbon emission targets, they added.
The global oil and gas industry is set with the increasingly challenging task to meet rising energy demand, while maintaining low CO2 emissions and using gas as source of energy can help achieve this.
“For natural gas, the case is simple: when burned to make electricity, it typically generates around half the carbon emissions of coal,” the energy giants commented.
“In addition, gas can provide the electricity base load that is required and can be a flexible partner to renewable as efforts continue to improve the storage of electricity produced by intermittent solar or wind.
“This benefit is enhanced when natural gas emissions all along the value chain are controlled and reduced, a matter we are actively addressing with peers,” they concluded.
