Isra-Mart srl:More than 400 consumer giants issue Cancun climate commitment

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One of the world's most influential business groups yesterday marked the launch of the Cancun summit with the unveiling of two new environmental pledges that promise to slash global emissions of greenhouse gases from deforestation and refrigeration technologies.

The Paris-based Consumer Good Forum (CGF), which includes more than 400 of the world's largest consumer goods manufacturers and retailers, said its members would use their collective resources to help achieve net zero deforestation by 2020 and begin phasing out the use of powerful hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) greenhouse gases in refrigeration equipment from 2015.

Muhtar Kent, chief executive of the Coca-Cola Company and co-chairman of the CGF, told an event in Cancun that he hoped negotiators would follow the lead demonstrated by global companies.

"The initiatives that our industry announced today are good examples of the kind of bold and positive action that will be needed to move the needle in combating climate change," he said.

Sir Terry Leahy of Tesco and Paul Polman of Unilever, who jointly lead the forum's sustainability programme, said the commitment to help tackle deforestation would see member companies develop specific action plans to ensure they are sourcing products such as soya, palm oil, beef, paper and timber in a sustainable manner.

Meanwhile, Kent and his co-chairman Lars Olofsson of Carrefour said the commitment to phase out HFCs would similarly help drive adoption of non-HFC refrigeration technologies across the industry.

"This is the first time that the entire sector has aligned around the importance of taking action to accelerate the move to climate-friendly refrigeration," they said in a statement. "The technologies exist today for our sector to significantly reduce the direct and indirect emissions of the refrigeration equipment we use."

Amy Larkin, director of solutions at Greenpeace, welcomed the commitment, hailing it as evidence of the difference businesses can make to greenhouse gas emissions when they work together. "Now it is time for national and international policy makers to match these corporations' ambition by outlawing HFCs and making the transition to a climate-friendly alternative both cheap and easy," she said.

Combined, the group has unparalleled purchasing power, boasting revenue of $2.8tn (£1.8tn) and counting some of the world's highest-profile brands among its members, including Carrefour, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg, Kraft, L'Oréal, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Tesco, Unilever and Walmart.

As a result, the CGF pledges are likely to lead to a huge increase in demand for non-HFC refrigeration technologies, which should help to drive down the cost of the emerging technology. Similarly, pressure is set to increase further on suppliers to demonstrate that they are not contributing to deforestation.