ABOUT 50 per cent of America’s top business leaders believe a lack of clarity on climate legislation is negatively impacting upon the ability of the US to compete in the global market.

This is the key finding to emerge from a survey of Fortune 500 senior executives undertaken by Irish renewable energy group NTR, which has established a foundation to support climate change initiatives.

The majority of the 130 respondents to the poll, which was conducted by Brunswick, said they did not require a legal framework to commit to specific actions or to create so-called “green-collar” jobs.

Business leaders said corporations should take a greater role in the climate policy debate.

Commenting on the findings, NTR chief executive Jim Barry said: “The results clearly show the business community considers the climate change challenge to be real and is responding, irrespective of government action.”

Seventy per cent of the respondents said climate change would be an important part of their commercial decision-making within five years. But almost three in four of the business leaders said security of energy supply was a more “pressing issue” for them than climate change.

The NTR Foundation will be launched in New York tomorrow, with former US president Bill Clinton acting as keynote speaker.

NTR has committed €5.5 million to the venture, and shares in the company.