June 23, 2008 - A high-powered group of international CEOs is asking G8 leaders to agree on an ambitious 50% cut in global climate emissions by 2050.

The so-called Gleneagles CEO Statement (PDF), signed by a who's who of the international business community, urges G8 leaders to take a stronger leadership stance on climate once the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

"We urge governments to seek consensus on a long-term goal of at least halving global emissions against current levels by 2050," the statement reads. "We seek leadership from the G8 to agree to deep cuts by 2050."

In place of government-to-government, top-down emission reduction commitments (as in Kyoto), the CEO statement recommends a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches, including public-private collaboration to set carbon-reduction strategy and create new financing mechanisms to support research into low-carbon technologies.

This isn't the first time international business leaders have called on policymakers to take more aggressive action on climate - and to assign a greater role to the private sector in developing emissions-reduction strategy. In November, a business group calling itself Combat Climate Change (3C) released its own plan for tackling climate change. Also in November, 150 of the biggest companies in the world signed the so-called Bali Communique, calling for a "comprehensive, legally binding" United Nations framework to tackle climate change.

U.N. leaders met in Bali the following month, agreeing to a roadmap of next steps toward an international climate pact to pick up where the Kyoto Protocol leaves off.