Nobel winner urges oil execs to help cut emissions

By Bernie Woodall

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Rajendra Pachauri said he thought he was "walking into the lion's den" on Tuesday when he told oil executives they need to take a lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions in order to save the earth.

Pachauri, chairman of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore, said the oil industry has been both lion and lamb when it comes to seeing the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions to prevent global warming.

"It's a very mixed response," Pachauri said on the sidelines of the CERA Week Energy Conference held at the heart of the U.S. oil industry in Houston.

"I was very struck by (ConocoPhillips Chief Executive) Jim Mulva's presentation when he talked about the pressure that the public is going to put on legislators and on companies," Pachauri said. "And those who do not accept that reality will face a huge reputational risk."

Mulva on Tuesday told the conference that the U.S. government should enact climate change policies that would tie into programs abroad. Mulva also said the petroleum industry must cut greenhouse gas emissions and that those in it "no longer have the luxury of standing on the sideline."

Pachauri noted Europe's BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have long said emissions must be cut.

"They have been several years ahead of what you see over here," Pachauri said. "There are others who are still apparently not convinced that something needs to be done. So it's a mixed picture."

Pachauri, 67, said he will make a decision in "two or three weeks" whether he will run for another term as IPCC chairman. He joked that the IPCC could be dissolved since "captains of industry" are having the same discussions on climate change.