Big Oil warns of backlash as it makes vow on climate change

The world’s biggest oil and gas companies made an unprecedented vow to cut their contributions to global warming, even as they warned of a potential backlash from pushing change too quickly.

A collection of 13 energy luminaries, including the heads of BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, gathered in New York Monday to acknowledge the need to reduce the planet’s reliance on fossil fuels. But they said a long road lies ahead that’s filled with political and technological challenges, and insisted petroleum will remain a key source of fuel for a growing population.

“The product portfolio will have to evolve, and I think we have a role in making that evolution," Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said at the forum. But, he added, “all these things we cannot do by forcing it down people’s throats. In the end it is the consumer that has to decide."

The meeting, organized by the industry-led Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, brought together top executives from firms representing one-third of the world’s oil and gas production, including European majors and national oil companies from China, Brazil, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. They gathered as the industry increasingly comes under pressure from governments and activists, while more investors are vowing to pull money from fossil-fuel producers.

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