The UK's biggest companies held their first meeting of a climate change task force yesterday to discuss how businesses can tackle the growing problem.

The new group, set up by the CBI and chaired by BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen, will produce a report this year with recommendations for action.

Last autumn's high profile report by economist Nicholas Stern on the impact of climate change will be the starting point of setting out an agenda. The group - which includes senior members from Barclays, BP, British Airways, Tesco, Aviva and the LSE - said it would come to its own independent conclusions and make recommendations to the government, individual businesses and the CBI itself.

"The time for debate about whether human activity is changing the climate has passed," said Richard Lambert, director general of the CBI. "Business needs to be at the heart of the debate to ensure it can play its role effectively."

Mr Verwaayen said: "The challenge for the task force is to identify solutions which address the issue of climate change without harming the competitiveness of British business."