UN climate chief calls for reform to oil and gas industry

The United Nations’ climate chief has called on the oil and gas industry to shift to a low-carbon future or risk having to leave three-quarters of fossil fuel reserves untouched.

Christiana Figueres addressed the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA) in a speech in London on Thursday and said: "The time for experimentation, for marginal changes and for conditional response is now over".

Figueres is the head of the U.N.'s Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn and she urged an "urgent transformation" to cleaner energy sources after top scientists warned on Monday that climate change would reduce global food and water security and slow economic growth.

Figueres has become more outspoken in recent months and has criticised the fossil fuel industry as part of efforts to promote renewable energy sources.

Figueres also noted that the recent report from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says the world has already burnt more than half a budget of a trillion metric tonnes of carbon if it wants to stay below 2°C.

Companies in the sector should also make efforts to reduce methane leaks, lobby for an effective price on carbon emissions and invest in carbon capture and storage (CCS), Figueres said.