A group of UK business leaders have called for a greater effort from the main political parties to counter the effects of climate change.

The UK Corporate Leaders Group - developed by the Prince of Wales - includes representatives from Tesco, Shell, BAA and E.ON and called for "deep and rapid" cuts to be made to greenhouse gas emissions.

"We now urgently need cross-party effort to develop a comprehensive package of policy measures to change every major sector of the economy," the group said in a letter to the three main party leaders.

But Greenpeace accused the group of hypocrisy, pointing out that BAA was currently involved in trying to expand the number of airports in the UK while E.ON was pushing to build a new coal-fired power station.

A leaked letter recently revealed the UK government hopes to buy its way into halving its carbon emissions targets by offsetting the damage it does with environmental projects elsewhere in the world.