Wall Street Journal:

PLC Chief Executive Ben van Beurden is preparing to offer some criticism of the debate over climate-change policy, and his industry’s approach to it, at a London oil-industry conference on Thursday night.

In a speech — an excerpt of which the Journal obtained — Mr. van Beurden will tell a roomful of oil executives in formal wear that the industry should support policies to curb climate change, including a carbon-pricing system and “a shift from coal to natural gas.”

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The solution, Mr. van Beurden says, is for the industry to stop keeping “a low profile on the issue. I understand that tactic,” the speech says, “but in the end it’s not a good tactic.”

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“I’m well aware that the industry’s credibility is an issue,” the speech says.

“You cannot talk credibly about lowering emissions globally if, for example, you are slow to acknowledge climate change; if you undermine calls for an effective carbon price; and if you always descend into the ‘jobs versus environment’ argument in the public debate,” Mr. van Beurden plans to say.