Corporate titans seek greenhouse gas caps

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NEW YORK, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Corporate titans including General Electric and Wal-Mart joined forces in New York Tuesday, demanding governments mandate caps on greenhouse gases.

"Global businesses are assuming their just place as catalysts for action on climate change. But action by business alone is not enough," GE Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt said in announcing the 3-year-old Global Roundtable on Climate Change.

The group called climate change "an urgent problem" and pressed governments to set targets for greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide emissions that are warming the Earth's atmosphere.

"Failing to act now would lead to far higher economic and environmental costs and greater risk of irreversible impacts," said the group, which included chemical company DuPont, automakers Ford and Toyota, investment bank Goldman Sachs, metals giant Alcoa, Air France, pharmaceuticals company Bayer and nearly 80 other companies.