A group of more than 500 large companies from around the world urged governments to agree to “an ambitious, robust and equitable” deal on climate change as they meet on Tuesday at the United Nations in New York.

The companies want a deal in part to create a level playing field around the world for monitoring and reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. They also fear the consequences of a failure to tackle global warming. Businesses would suffer if a credible deal was not reached in Copenhagen in December, they warned.