A who's who of major corporate names signed on to a John Kerry-led coalition that is aiming to tackle the carbon footprint of shipping and other hard-to-abate industries.

The addition of online retail giant Amazon even won the praise of environmental groups as a key win for efforts to decarbonise ocean shipping.

TradeWinds has already reported that shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk and trader Trafigura were poised to be the key shipping names in the First Movers Coalition, an initiative of the World Economic Forum and Kerry, the US president's special envoy for climate matters.