"Failing to act now would lead to far higher economic and environmental costs and greater risk of irreversible impacts," the Global Roundtable on Climate Change warned in a statement, announcing its first major agreement since talks began in 2004.

The group, which includes executives from a range of industries including the air transport, energy, and technology industries, called on governments to set targets for greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide emissions.

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The agreement urged governments to place a price on the carbon emissions released by power plants, factories and other sectors to discourage emissions.

"Of course, addressing climate change involves risks and costs. But much greater is the risk of failing to act," said Alain Belda, chairman and CEO of the world's top aluminum producer, Alcoa, who signed the pact. The group includes General Electric, Ford, Toyota Motor North America, Goldman Sachs and Wal-Mart.

President George W Bush's administration has rejected mandatory caps on emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases in the United States that contribute to a rise in temperatures - in turn linked to more storms, worse droughts, rising seas and other ills.

But the White House has recently been on the defensive, especially since the February 2 release of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which called warming "unequivocal" and said with 90 percent probability that humans help cause it.

The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is about 30 percent higher than in 1900 and nearly half of this increase has occurred since 1980.

The group estimated that a "business-as-usual" path could put the planet at three times the carbon dioxide levels seen before 1900.

The largest carbon-emitting sector is power generation, responsible for more than 40 percent of energy-related emissions. Industry accounts for more than 18 percent, transport 20 percent.

The group estimates that technology to head off mounting carbon dioxide concentrations would cost about 1percent of global gross domestic product, but costs would fall in time.

"If we delay too long in beginning the changeover to increasingly de- carbonized energy systems, the eventual costs will only rise and the impact of climate change will only become more severe," the group said. Twenty-seven European Union environment ministers agreed to a goal of cutting emissions by 30 percent worldwide by 2012, with a 20 percent unilateral cut by the EU. REUTERS

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