Obama's clean power plan hailed as US's strongest ever climate action

Hundreds of businesses including eBay and Nestle back federal rules to cut emissions and encourage a switch away from coal to renewable energy

Hundreds of businesses including eBay, Nestle and General Mills have issued their support for Barack Obama's clean power plan, billed as the strongest action ever on climate change by a US president.

The rules, being announced on Monday, are designed to cut emissions from power plants and have been strengthened in terms of the long-term ambition as originally proposed by the president last year, but slightly weakened in the short-term in a concession to states reliant on highly-polluting coal.