Industry, Government Must Tackle Balance Between Energy Use, Climate Change, Executives Say

By The Associated Press

HOUSTON: Global energy companies and governments must come together to help solve one of the biggest challenges facing the world today — keeping the planet fueled while not ruining the environment, two top oil executives said Tuesday.

Despite rising international concerns over energy and climate, the world continually deals with these issues through "uncoordinated approaches," James Mulva, chairman of oil giant ConocoPhillips, told a gathering of industry executives, academics and analysts Tuesday. Meanwhile, Mulva said, "the U.S. has missed opportunities to show leadership because it lacks a coherent approach to either problem."

Mulva's remarks came at an annual energy summit sponsored by Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a Massachusetts-based consultancy. As executives gave their takes on the state of the industry, a theme arose: how do companies such as ConocoPhillips continue to find and produce hydrocarbons to meet growing global demand while also trying to reduce emissions that some scientists say are heating the atmosphere like a greenhouse?

As a start, Mulva said, the U.S. needs a strong, mandatory national framework to manage carbon emissions. "Federal legislation may be just a year or two away, so the train is leaving the station without the industry on board," he said. "Why should we care? Because we have a responsibility to provide sustainable energy, and rising concerns over climate change are likely to seriously constrain our ability to do so."

Earlier, Abdallah Jum'ah, president and chief executive of the state-controlled Saudi Arabian Oil Co., said global warming deserves the industry's "most serious attention." But he said exploring for and producing fossil fuels remain vital because, for now, "alternatives are simply not ready to shoulder the load, nor will they be in a position to do so anytime soon." Mulva said oil companies should have a seat at the negotiating table, along with lawmakers, academia and others. The industry also must realize it has to change the way it provides energy, such as using more low-carbon and renewable fuels.

ConocoPhillips has said it's focused on finding ways to produce ethanol, an alternative already in use, and renewable diesel fuel more efficiently. It also has committed to improving energy efficiency at its U.S. refineries by 10 percent by 2012. Globally, Mulva said, the U.S. and other nations also need to create a mandatory framework that sets a value on carbon avoidance.

In December, under the auspices of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 186 nations that attended a climate meeting in Bali, Indonesia, agreed on a "Bali Roadmap" of principles to craft a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. That decade-old treaty requires 36 industrial nations to radically reduce emissions by 2012, when it expires. The United States is the only major industrial country that did not ratify the protocol. In Bali, however, the U.S. agreed to participate in crafting the new global-warming deal.

Without referring specifically to the U.N. effort, Jum'ah said "assembling such a vast and varied coalition requires genuine commitment, a pragmatic and practical mind-set, and an agreement that we should quit working at cross purposes in pursuit of disparate agendas." Mulva noted the importance of the U.S. in the global climate discussion. Shunning such efforts, he said, "risks a further loss of geopolitical influence" and would cause "incalculable damage to efforts to fight terrorism, encourage trade and so forth."

The chief U.N. climate scientist, R.K. Pachauri, who spoke after Jum'ah and Mulva, said he was "totally delighted" to hear the proactive sentiment in Jum'ah's and Mulva's remarks, though he said action from oil companies and others is needed now. Pachauri chaired the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore. The panel has warned of rising seas, droughts, severe weather and other dire consequences without sharp cutbacks in emissions of the industrial, transportation and agricultural gases blamed for warming.

Pachauri said he agreed with Mulva that legislators and companies alike will come under increasing public pressure to help fix the climate-change problem. "Those who lag behind will suffer from loss in the marketplace, and loss of reputation," he said. "This applies to nations as well. Nations that stand unmoved would lose political power and influence."

To be continue in other article...

(Jakarta, Kamis 21 February 2008, 07.39 pagi)

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