The European Union's biggest business leaders threw their weight behind a plan to make the bloc climate-neutral, a commitment that could be adopted at a leaders' summit this week.

"Europe has the technology and the political will to take the lead in transitioning towards a climate-neutral, resource-saving sustainable future," the European Round Table for Industry (ERT) said in a policy document released Sunday. "The global environmental and long-term economic benefits are obvious, while the cost of global inaction would be intolerable," said the group, which counts household names such as L'Oreal SA's Jean-Paul Agon, Siemens AG's Joe Kaeser and BP PLC's Helge Lund among its members.

The EU is debating this week plans to zero out its greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of this century. Barring pushback by a small group of countries led by Poland, EU leaders will formally commit to the target when they meet in Brussels on Thursday. On Wednesday, the bloc's executive arm will present a road map of the regulatory and legislative steps toward this ambitious objective — the so-called European Green Deal.