(Decanter) - Former US president Barack Obama has used a climate change summit in Porto to urge the wine industry to work together more, and called on businesses to help shape government policy on the issue.

Business should unite to share ideas and exert influence over governments about climate change, said Barack Obama at a summit in Porto dominated by wine industry delegates.

‘For winemakers to share best practice in the face of rising temperatures makes perfect sense,’ said Obama, speaking on Friday 6 July.

Technological solutions are often out there, ‘but how we organise ourselves is a problem’, said the former US president.

‘Too late, and the solutions are sub-optimal,’ he warned.

He and other speakers attended to help launch the ‘Porto Protocol’, a wine industry-led initiative.