IKEA, the furniture giant, has made a number of key announcements in advance of the next global summit on climate change in Paris. The company has confirmed that it plans to invest £470 million in green energy projects, further boosting an initial investment commitment of £1.2 billion. This total sum will be further increased by an additional £314 million of funding to support communities most affected by climate change.

IKEA is the biggest retailer of furniture in the world and has long been a powerful promoter of green energy and recycling in general. It is working hard to generate a net positive impact on the global environment through stronger energy-efficiency programmes, investment in green energy, measures to cut emissions in the supply change and product changes.

Already, it has supported its supply chain to achieve efficiencies of 20pc within just four years by developing and introducing a new sustainability measure and assessment software tool, and by bringing its supply chain together to cohesively work as a group to share best practices in the field of sustainability.

At the recent COP21 summit, IKEA used the We Mean Business coalition of investors and global businesses to lobby strongly for more concerted action at the government level when it comes to renewable energy. It is also a co-founder of RE100, another green campaign that has signed up fifty of the world's largest organisations that are prepared to transition wholly to 100pc green energy.

Now IKEA has set its sights on becoming a green energy net exporter in just four years. Already it generates over half of its power from these renewable energies - with over 300 of its own wind turbines installed and a whopping 700,000 solar PV panels across its retail and warehousing estate.