UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon promoted a "cleaner and greener" global economy and urged business leaders to back a new climate pact in the opening ceremony of World Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Sunday afternoon.

"I want to see you in the vanguard of an unprecedented effort to retool the global economy into one that is cleaner, greener and more sustainable," Ban said to hundreds of business leaders, adding that they must harness the necessary political will to push for an ambitious new climate agreement in December.

During the three-day meetings, the business leaders will try to unite for long-term climate policies on oil, power and technology, the Danish daily Politiken reported.

The Business leaders are trying to unite for a "cleaner, greener" world economy, the report said.

They will also discuss how their firms can help solve the climate crisis through innovative business models, new partnerships, and the development of low-carbon technologies.

They will send a strong message to the negotiating governments on how to remove barriers and create incentives for implementation of new solutions in a post-Kyoto framework, according to a statement of Copenhagen Climate Council on Sunday.

The goal of the Summit is to demonstrate how policy, coupled with innovative business models, can drive a sustainable transformation of the economy and stimulate job creation and low-carbon solutions, the statement added.

The UN Climate Change Conference will be held in Copenhagen in December, aiming to ink a new global treaty on fighting global warming to succeed the Kyoto Protocol which is to expire in 2012.

(Xinhua News Agency May 25, 2009)