European supermajors BP and Shell have thrown their support behind a Republican-backed effort to push US lawmakers to enact a carbon tax to fight climate change.

The companies have each pledged $1 million over two years to a lobbying arm of the Climate Leadership Council, a group led by former US secretaries of state James Baker and George Schultz that advocates a carbon tax of $40 per tonne that would pay dividends to US taxpayers.

BP and Shell join a host of corporations, including industry peers Total, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, that are backing the tax on carbon, which would gradually increase over time.

Industry leaders have long called for a price on carbon as a way to curb emissions while offering some predictability for making business decisions.

But the idea has gained little traction in the US Congress, where the last significant attempt to address the issue was a 2009 cap-and-trade measure approved by the House of Representatives but rejected in the Senate.

The initiative being advanced by the Washington-based Climate Leadership Council (CLC) is distinct because its authors include many former officials in Republican administrations and it has the endorsement of both business and leading environmental groups.

Democrats regained a House majority in last November’s elections and last week held hearings on ways to address climate change in the House Ways and Means Committee.

CLC chairman and chief executive Ted Halstead spoke before the committee about the Baker-Shultz plan at the hearing, a spokesman for the organisation told Upstream.

“(Halstead) highlighted the need for a bipartisan approach to solving the climate problem. He also emphasised that our plan is backed by the broadest climate coalition in US history and is also favoured by the majority of voters from both parties,” the spokesman said.

New survey results from Republican pollster Frank Luntz show “remarkably strong support for our plan across all demographics”, especially voters under 40, he said.

The plan includes some perks for business such as a rollback of Obama-era emissions regulations and liability protection for energy companies in potential climate change-related lawsuits.

Supporters say the plan’s quarterly dividend payments — about $2000 per year for a typical family of four in the programme’s first year — would offset higher energy prices and shore up public support for the tax.

However, it is unlikely that any bill that includes new taxes will gain the support of the current crop of conservatives, let alone get a hearing in the Republican-led Senate.

The Baker-Schultz plan’s advocates are banking on rapidly changing public opinion on climate change — and the backing of political figures from what is perceived as a less partisan time — to advance the carbon tax.

“We have built the broadest climate coalition in US history to advance a consensus solution to the climate challenge,” the spokesman said.

“Our coalition includes corporate sector leaders for a wide range of industries as well as top environmental organisations and opinion leaders from across the political spectrum. This remarkably broad coalition is working together to develop the policy specifics of our plan.”

The CLC cites recent modelling to claim that implementation of the progressive carbon tax would produce carbon dioxide emissions reductions of around 32% below 2005 levels by 2025, within the range for the US set forth in the Paris Agreement, and as much as a 53% reduction by 2035, depending on how fast the tax escalates.

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BP and Shell back plans for US carbon tax