The Pew Center's Business Environmental Leadership Council (BELC) became the largest U.S.-based association of companies committed to advancing both policy and business solutions to climate change. The Council started with 13 members and by 2008 included “44 companies with $2.8 trillion in market capitalization, a sizable chunk of the world economy,” according to McClatchy Newspapers. It now includes more than 30 mainly Fortune 500 companies with combined revenue of $2 trillion and 3.5 million employees. The Council now operates as the C2ES Business Environmental Leadership Council. The Pew Center also served as a founding and active member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), an influential business-NGO coalition calling on Congress to establish a mandatory national climate policy.