Oil majors pledge $1 billion for technologies to fight climate change

Oil majors including Saudi Aramco, Royal Dutch Shell and Total on Friday pledged to invest $1 billion in carbon-reducing technologies to help fight climate change.

The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) also includes BP, Eni, Repsol, Statoil, CNPC, Pemex and Reliance Industries.

The 10 firms said they would first focus on speeding up deployment of carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) technology and reducing methane emissions that can leak from pipelines.

"We are personally committed to ensuring that by working with others our companies play a key role in reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases," the companies said in a joint statement, pledging to spend $1 billion over 10 years.

The oil majors said the fund, OGCI Climate Investments, will work closely with manufacturers to increase energy efficiency in transport and energy-intensive industries.

The announcement coincides with the official entering into force on Friday of the 2015 Paris Agreement, intended to wean the world economy off fossil fuels in the second half of this century in order to slash carbon emissions.