The deal has been criticised for letting companies off the hook, since businesses only have to make voluntary pledges of limited action in return for ministerial promises not to impose tougher rules.
It has been criticised for letting food firms dodge their public health responsibilities too easily by agreeing to make voluntary pledges of only limited action in return for a promise that ministers will not legislate to impose tougher rules.
In the boardroom a voluntary pledge from a government sounds rather like "maybe".
Nutrition experts say that the voluntary pledges are fraught with loopholes, and that "better for you" is a relative term that allows companies to keep marketing unhealthful options.
"We are now seeing a hodge-podge of voluntary pledges that adhere to no clear standards and have no mechanisms for enforcement," she said.
Luisa Abbott Galvao, climate and energy campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said letting countries make voluntary pledges lets countries like the United States —"the largest historic contributor to climate change"— off the hook.
Recently, they've suggested that for now, governments should stop looking for a global deal and concentrate on delivering the unilateral voluntary pledges they made around the time of the Copenhagen summit.
Heretofore, corporate voluntary pledges to improve the health of Americans have been linked neither to explicit measurable commitments nor to a framework for an independent evaluation.
The scientific evidence is growing clearer". For some, including the US and China, this "pledge and review" process of voluntary pledges offers an adequate way of ensuring carbon is reduced globally.
Real progress will require individual countries to fulfill their voluntary pledges under previous U.N. agreements.
