Climate Change Meeting To Focus On Ensuring Countries Keep Commitments

The world's governments are meeting today in Bonn, Germany, to work on a U.N. agreement to tackle climate change, a day after European energy companies urged them to adopt a pricing system for carbon emissions.

NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce, who is reporting on the story for our Newscast unit, says the meeting in Bonn is part of the run-up to a major climate summit being held in Paris at the end of the year. Here's more from Nell:

"Negotiators from nearly 200 countries have gathered in Bonn. They're wrangling with a 90-page-long document that contains all kinds of options for how to best rein in greenhouse gas emissions and deal with climate change. ... Negotiators will whittle down the draft text into something more manageable and start trying to resolve major issues: like how to make sure countries actually keep their promises about cutting emissions."

The Bonn session runs until June 11.

Meanwhile, writing in the Financial Times, the CEOs of European energy companies BG Group, BP, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil and Total said: "We firmly believe that carbon pricing will discourage high carbon options and reduce uncertainty that will help stimulate investments in the right low-carbon technologies and the right resources at the right pace."

Reuters reports that U.S. oil majors ExxonMobil and Chevron decided not to take part in the initiative. The wire service adds:

"Setting a price for each ton of carbon that emitters produce is meant to encourage companies to adopt cleaner technologies and shift away from using fossil fuels, primarily coal. ... The U.N. and World Bank have been strong advocates for policies that shift the responsibility to polluters to pay for carbon emissions."