THE head of one of Australia's biggest oil refiners has warned his fellow corporate leaders to face up to the inevitability of climate change by switching out of fossil fuels.

Australia's business community must change its practices and unite behind efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, BP Australasia president Gerry Hueston said.

Mr Hueston's call was immediately backed by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), which urged other businesses to unite around practical action on climate change.

He told business leaders in Perth that a business the size of BP had a responsibility to show leadership on issues with the potential to affect not only its own operations but also the countries in which it operated and the customers it served.

"My view is that we are running out of time to deal with the environmental consequences of fossil fuels much faster than we are running down our stocks of them," Mr Hueston said.

The challenge was to move away from fossil fuel use at a time when there was a plentiful and cheap supply still in the ground, he said.

"It would be too great a risk to stand by, do nothing and to wait so long that when the impact on the climate really does begin to be felt, we have to collectively take action which is so disruptive that it causes serious damage to the world's economy," Mr Hueston said.

He also believed it was necessary to establish a value for carbon emissions reductions, as well as the Federal Government's preference to offer incentives to develop new, clean technologies.

Australia last week joined the US, China, Japan, South Korea and India in signing a pact that set targets to reduce emissions and commits member countries to developing and sharing clean technology.

Mr Hueston said a plan was needed to reduce global emissions to around seven billion tonnes of carbon emissions per year to achieve stabilisation in the atmosphere.

Governments had to facilitate this by establishing a value for carbon emissions reductions and offering incentives to develop new technologies, he said.

"But, not all of industry is currently aligned on these objectives, and governments are conscious of the political and economic risks of delivering real change on greenhouse policy in the absence of consistent signals from the business community," Mr Hueston said.

"So to deliver real change on greenhouse policy, we need to target not the government but the business community in order to persuade those who are currently uncertain to unite around a common progressive position on greenhouse."

ACF executive director Don Henry said Mr Hueston had taken a much-needed positive stance among the business community.

"To date, the unfocused response of the business community on climate change policy has been a major barrier to governments taking real action to reduce greenhouse pollution," Mr Henry said.

"ACF also welcomed BP's recognition that we need to go beyond voluntary measures and until we place a price on greenhouse pollution industry will not have major incentives to invest in and deploy low-emission technologies."

Greenpeace clean energy campaigner Danny Kennedy said his group was happy to see the big end of town starting to acknowledge what Greenpeace had long said.

"(That is) that you need mandated change and you do need more than just a voluntary commitment to address climate change," Mr Kennedy said.