LONDON — Ten of the world’s big oil companies, mainly from Europe, jointly acknowledged on Friday that their industry must help address global climate change and said that they agreed with the United Nations’ goals of limiting global warming.

The public declaration by a group called the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative was an effort to convince an increasingly skeptical world that energy companies, whose fossil fuels are a big source of greenhouse gases, are serious about delivering cleaner energy and combating climate change.

But the impact of that statement might be limited.

None of the biggest American oil companies signed the declaration or were part of the group. The companies that were involved — including BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Saudi Aramco and Total — made no specific commitments toward helping to meet the climate challenge. Instead, they indicated they would await government regulations to chart the way forward.

Eight of the chief executives in the group discussed its aims at a news conference on Friday in Paris, looking ahead to the United Nations climate conference Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 in the French capital.