Private sector's support for climate change reaches new level

As part of a joint presidential statement on climate change with US President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping said during his September state visit to the United States that China "plans to start in 2017 its national emission trading system, covering key industry sectors such as iron and steel, power generation, chemicals, building materials, paper-making, and nonferrous metals."

The scheme commits China to promoting low-carbon buildings and transportation, with the share of newly built green buildings reaching 50 percent and the share of public transport reaching 30 percent in big- and medium-sized cities by 2020.

However, Pasztor warned that this progress from the private sector was still not going far enough, even when combined with public efforts, to keep the world under the two degrees Celsius temperature growth limit.

"Companies are seeing the writing on the wall. We are at the cusp of a new low-carbon economy. Companies that are leading the pack will benefit in the future because they reacted faster than others," Pasztor said.

"However, we must now push for a package to come out of the inter-governmental negotiations in Paris in December that will accelerate this whole process," he concluded.