If the vibes from Brazil are anything to go by, this year’s COP30 looks like being a make or break sustainability event.
With concerns already having been raised about the choice of venue, with a severe shortage of accommodation given most of it will take place in the relatively small, northern Brazilian city of Belem, now the attention is — fairly predictably — beginning to turn to the appetite of large businesses to take part.
This week, the chief executive of COP30 felt compelled to issue a public appeal to companies to stay the course from previous conferences, and come to Brazil — despite the increasing political and investor pressure on countries and some firms to soften or reverse their work to transition to greener economies. The impact of both U.S. trade tariffs and President Trump’s stance against renewable energy also cast a long shadow.
The call for businesses to attend COP30 follows concerns that very few countries have yet submitted their carbon emissions reduction plans to the United Nations, meaning that any constructive global commitments towards them would need to be brokered in Belem — something that seems hardly likely now.
It’s all a far cry from the tension and apparent positive conclusions of the COPs of a few years ago, such as when a global warming ceiling and sustainable finance commitments were set at the Glasgow event four years ago.
As the Financial Times reported recently, the lack of hotels and guest houses in this year’s host city may be something of a convenient excuse for business leaders not to attend.
The same newspaper has since carried a column outlining that while COP30 not be the forum that achieves it, such global conferences are vital for cementing unilateral action to reduce the impact of climate change and safeguard the environment. Pointing to the rowing back on climate action and continued uncertainty around the staying power of key policies, it opined that “any step to address the politics and the money at the heart of the climate problem is well and truly overdue.”
As TIME magazine’s main editorial on the topic pointed out, some companies may choose to only attend COP30 side events in Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo — where meaningful talks and pledges may actually end up taking place.
But it also noted a stark shift in the nature of firms that were slated to take part: “One set of companies expected to show up in force are firms located in India and China. That’s a change from recent years when large western companies have shown in force and Asian firms have remained more muted.”
After the Prime Minister unveiled a new national emissions reduction target at COP29 to much fanfare, the UK’s stance this year has been noticeably muted. He is expected to travel to Brazil, but will doubtless face cross-party political sniping in doing so given other factors dragging down Government popularity at home.
It all points to this being a make or break COP. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it will peter out — we may see a clearer focus on the positive returns of a more sustainable economy, and a desire to rise above the current geopolitics, if this week’s news about Norway’s largest energy company investing a further $1bn in offshore wind despite facing a stiff breeze from across the Atlantic is anything to go by.
