The City of London Corporation will next week call on City firms to sign up to a new initiative designed to help them reduce and offset their carbon emissions.

Lord Mayor of the City of London David Lewis said that he hoped all firms operating in the Square Mile would sign up to the City Climate Pledge, committing them monitoring and reducing their carbon emissions.

Under the initiative, firms signing up to the pledge will agree to measure and publicly report on both their carbon emissions and their progress towards reducing their environmental impact. They will also commit to mitigate carbon emissions where possible, and ensure that any carbon offsetting they invest in is in line with the UK government's code of best practice.

Signatories will also gain access to carbon reduction advice from consultancy the BRE Group and carbon offset charity Pure.

Robert Rabinowicz, director of Pure, said that by demonstrating their commitment to cut carbon emissions City firms could bolster their environmental credibility at a time when London is keen to cement its dominance of the emerging global carbon market.

"We will launch next week and then seriously ramp up recruitment activity in the autumn," he said. "We want a significant proportion of the floor space in the city signed up to the pledge and have already seen a lot of interest from firms who are already engaged in reducing their carbon emissions."