ClickAJob News

Business leaders from 150 global companies are calling on world leaders to agree a comprehensive and legally binding deal to tackle climate change.

Companies including supermarket giant Tesco, British Airways, confectioner Nestle and oil firm Shell are among those backing a communiqué calling for such an environmental agreement, with Prince Charles supporting the initiative.

The communiqué is being sent to the 130 environment ministers, from across the world, who will be attending a United Nations (UN) conference on climate change in Bali next week.

Business leaders hope the so-called Bali Communique will have a significant impact on the talks - aimed at fostering negotiations on a climate change deal to replace the existing Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

In addition to calling for a new UN framework to tackle climate change, the communiqué also stresses targets to reduce emissions should primarily be guided by science – not economics.

The statement, which warns the scientific evidence of climate change is now "overwhelming", says industrialised countries must lead the battle against global warming and urges world leaders to agree a programme of negotiations to ensure a new global environmental agreement can come into force after 2012.

It says a new agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would provide businesses with the certainty they need to increase investment in low-carbon technologies and that a shift to a low-carbon economy would create "significant business opportunities".

"As business leaders, it is our belief that the benefits of strong, early action on climate change outweigh the costs of not acting," states the communiqué – which has been led by the Prince of Wales' UK and EU corporate leaders groups on climate change.

Welcoming the initiative in an article published in today’s Financial Times, Prince Charles expresses his "fervent hope" the statement will "strengthen the resolve of those gathered in Bali to make the tough decisions the world so urgently needs".

Responding to the communiqué Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper said: "This initiative from the Prince of Wales is a major step forward in facing the urgent challenges posed by global climate change.

"The opportunity for governments to agree the necessary reduction in emissions is now very much greater. Now we need real political leadership," he added.