South African companies Absa, Nedbank, Pick ‘n Pay, Santam, Sanlam and Sappi joined business leaders from over 500 global companies to sign ‘The Copenhagen Communiqué', urging world leaders to agree on an "ambitious, robust and equitable" global deal on climate change, and warned that business would suffer if a credible deal was not reached at the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December.

The launch of the Communiqué coincided with the UN Summit on Climate Change, which is taking place at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday.

Absa bank CEO Maria Ramos will be in attendance when the Communiqué is handed over to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. The document will also be distributed to more than 100 Heads of State and governments attending the summit.

Two pages in length, the Communiqué sets out the business case for a strong and effective UN climate framework and offers a progressive global consensus on the shape of an agreement.

"These are difficult and challenging times for the international business community and a poor outcome from the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen will only make them more so, by creating uncertainty and undermining confidence," said business leaders in the document.

The issue of financing for climate change mitigation and adaptation was one of the most contentious issues in the climate negotiations, with a variety of estimates suggesting that between $100-billion and $200-billion would be needed yearly by 2030 to help developing countries reduce their emissions and adapt to the climate change already being experienced.

In the Copenhagen Communiqué, business leaders argued that "the costs of transition are manageable, even in the current economic climate". They further stated that "the more ambitious the framework, the more business will deliver, but delay is not an option".

They warned that economic development would not be sustained in the longer term, unless the climate was stabilised. "It is critical that we exit this recession in a way that lays the foundation for low-carbon growth and avoids locking us into a high carbon future."

The companies called for emission reduction targets to be guided by science and offered support for the emerging consensus to limit global average temperature rise to less than 2 ºC compared with pre-industrial levels. In turn, they recognised that this would require global emissions to peak and begin to decline rapidly within the next decade and reduce by 50% to 85% by 2050.

The business leaders urged developed countries to take on "immediate and deep emission reduction commitments" and "demonstrate that low-carbon growth is both achievable and desirable" and provide the necessary financial and technological assistance to developing countries.

They further called on developing countries to draw up their own emission reduction plans, and called on advanced developing countries to adopt economy-wide commitments by 2020.

The companies argued for an immediate interim emergency package to provide substantial funding to tropical forest nations to help them halt deforestation in their countries. The continued destruction of rainforests was said to account for up to one fifth of yearly greenhouse gas emissions.

The University of Cambridge programme for sustainability leadership said that The Copenhagen Communiqué has secured the support of companies based in over 50 countries, including: the US, the European Union, Japan, Australia and Canada, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and ranged from the world's largest companies to small and medium-size enterprises, and across a variety of business sectors.

The Communiqué is an initiative of The Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders' Group on Climate Change, which is run by The University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership. Global partners in support of the initiative include: The Climate Group, The UN Global Compact and the World Wide Fund for Nature-International along with business associations and initiatives in many different countries.