BP AND Shell have split from the rest of the oil industry by agreeing with environmentalists that oil companies must recognise the threat of man-made climate change by shifting towards alternative sources of energy such as solar power.
John Browne, chief executive of BP, said this week: "There is now an effective consensus among the world's leading scientists and serious well-informed people outside the scientific community that there is a discernible human influence on the climate."
While there were uncertainties in the prediction of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that world average temperatures might rise 3.5 C degrees over the next century, "it would be unwise and potentially dangerous to ignore the mounting concern", he told an audience at Stanford University, California.
"If we are all to take responsibility for the future of our planet, then it falls to us to begin to take precautionary action now."
Mr Browne promised that BP would develop alternative fuels such as solar power. The company plans to boost solar power sales to £650 million a year in the next decade. It will commission a solar panel plant in California by the end of the year.
This week Shell predicted a shift towards renewable energy sources - wind biomass and solar - growing to five per cent of the global market by 2020.
Heinz Rothermund, managing director of Shell's oil exploration and production, said Greenpeace had raised "a key question" by campaigning against any expansion of oil exploration into the Atlantic because of the climate implications of burning fossil fuels released.
Mr Rothermund said fossil fuels would face ever-increasing demand from renewable energy sources.
"I believe that over time surpluses will arise and we may, ultimately, leave oil and gas in the ground, as we are leaving most of the coal in the ground."
Chris Rose, deputy director of Greenpeace, said: "This is quite extraordinary. It is like turkeys saying that Christmas is coming.
"Rothermund has actually accepted the logic of what we have been saying - that there are too many fossil fuel reserves already to (need to) go looking for more."
He said the two companies had split from the "stonewall alliance" against action on climate change run by their former fellows in the Global Climate Coalition, the alliance of fossil fuel producers.
BP has comparatively few reserves, so may see value in shifting towards alternative energy but Shell, which has many reserves, stands to gain if governments start to call time on oil exploration, said Mr Rose.
