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The Sustainability Development Commission (SDC) has called on supermarkets to pay greater attention to climate change and customers' health.

In a report entitled Green, Healthy and Fair, the watchdog criticised the practices of major food retailers and claimed that many of their practices were not helping the government achieve targets on health, waste, climate change and fair trade.

The assessment of supermarket practices says that too many operations were "unhealthy, unjust and unsustainable".

SDC commissioner Professor Tim Lang said: "Government cannot resolve the problems of obesity, waste or climate change alone. Given the enormous influence wielded by supermarkets, working with them effectively is essential.

"There are many areas where the government and retailers are already working together, but government needs to be more ambitious. With public scrutiny of retailers' behaviour increasing, many supermarkets are keen to work with government to develop a green, healthy and fair food system. In fact, our research with supermarkets has shown that in areas such as climate change or recycling policy, they are often frustrated by the lack of clarity or long-term strategy on which they can plan for the future," he added.

The report criticises the use of multi-buy promotions, over-packaging and non-recyclable packaging which it stated encouraged waste and obesity. It also urged the government to persuade supermarkets to focus on the promotion of health products and to introduce a better nutrient labelling system.

On the issue of climate change, the SDC called for the introduction of a water footprint system to monitor the use of the scarce resource and called for a system measuring "universal sustainability standards" to be developed

The SDC report comes after the Competition Commission called for new regulations on supermarkets which included an ombudsman to protect food suppliers in disputes with the big chains, changes to the planning system and the ability to enforce a tighter supermarket code of practice (SCOP).

The competition watchdog accused the big four grocers - Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons - of buying up land to prevent rivals opening nearby.