Top EU companies urge drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions

* Companies urge goal of "net zero" emissions well before 2100

* Say fighting climate change can bring economic benefits

* Want tough action from Paris U.N. summit in December

By Alister Doyle and Geert De Clercq

PARIS, May 21 (Reuters) - Top European companies urged governments on Thursday to set a goal of slashing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero well before 2100, saying that going green can bring profits rather than costs.

Business leaders from global and European alliances of companies including Unilever (NYSE: UL - news) , Total (Swiss: FP.SW - news) and Saint-Gobain also called for a global price on carbon emissions and a phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies.

"We want a global climate deal that achieves net zero emissions - make it happen," they said in a statement directed at almost 200 governments which are due to agree a deal to slow global warming at a summit in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) . 11.

Net zero emissions would mean drastic cuts and imply any remaining emissions would be offset, for instance, by planting trees to soak up carbon dioxide or with yet-to-be-developed technologies to extract carbon from the air.

They said global emissions should peak around 2020 and reach net zero "well before the end of the century". (Additional reporting by Michel Rose and Jessica Chen; Editing by David Holmes)