Roadmap to COP30 - Climate Action in 2025

As global warming surpassed 1.5°C and climate change fueled extreme weather events worldwide, the resulting significant physical and economic damage, along with the loss of life, made the cost of inaction clearer than ever in 2024.

The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) published its landmark Nexus Report in December, finding that delayed action on biodiversity goals could as much as double costs, also increasing the probability of irreplaceable losses such as species extinctions. Further, delayed action on climate change adds at least $500bn per year in additional costs for meeting policy targets. Therefore, 2025 must see accelerated efforts conducive to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement and the Global Biodiversity Framework.  

Enhancing ambition and enabling action 

The three months of October to December saw an intense period of UN-led negotiations over tackling biodiversity loss, climate change and desertification. Biodiversity COP16 in Cali was suspended due to a loss of quorum and will resume in Rome this February. Meanwhile, COP29 in Baku concluded with disappointment over a subpar climate finance deal, and Desertification COP16 in Riyadh ended without reaching an agreement on drought mitigation.

The weak, or lack of, outcomes raised doubts about the ability of the COP process to address the great threat caused by human-induced climate change. Yet, it currently remains the strongest tool for international cooperation.  

At the conclusion of COP29 in Baku, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell emphasised this, setting the tone for the year ahead: “We need to set our sights and redouble our efforts on the road to Belém. Even so, we've shown the UN Paris Agreement is delivering, but governments still need to pick up the pace.  

Let’s not forget, without this UN-convened global cooperation, we'd be headed towards 5°C of global warming.    

But we are still a long way off course. Bold new climate plans on the way to Belém will be crucial to getting us back in the race. They must embed the targets we agreed in Dubai, including to rapidly ramp up renewables, transition away from fossil fuels, and transform societies, making them more resilient.” 

Further, discussions on a UN plastics treaty at the end of November reiterated the difficulty in mediating the conflicting interests of petrostates as talks were put on hold over disagreement on production limits. 

Yet, the global climate community’s commitment does not waver. At the Climate Action Coalition’s COP29 Outcomes Forum in December, Professor Sir Jim Skea, Chair of the IPCC, offered optimism, stating: “The scale and pace of climate change pose unprecedented challenges for humanity, but we have the means and tools to address them if we choose to use them.” 

The Roadmap to COP30 

A year from now, at the end of 2025, the world will be reflecting on the 10 years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement and digesting the outcomes of COP30 in the Amazonian city of Belém in Brazil. 

Whilst the UNFCCC COP is the pinnacle of climate talks, a constant dialogue is needed to drive action at all levels, ensuring that commitments are translated into tangible outcomes, fostering accountability, and maintaining momentum throughout the year. 

By February, all countries will have submitted their updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs 3.0), outlining their climate action plans to reduce emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. These plans, informed by the findings of the first Global Stocktake concluded at COP28 in Dubai—which revealed the world is off track to meet the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement—will need to significantly raise the bar on ambition. 

Whilst governments set the direction of travel through these plans and implement policies to facilitate their realisation, non-state actors are vital in delivering them. In particular, the private sector serves as a vehicle for developing innovative solutions and providing investment required to meet climate goals.

Climate Action has been working at the intersection of climate policy, innovation, and sustainable finance for 17 years, convening the innovation ecosystem to facilitate transformative solutions. Its roadmap to COP30, where the Climate Action Innovation Zone will take place, includes Sustainable Investment Forums in Paris and New York, and the Climate Innovation Forum in London. 

Sustainable Investment Forums 

The New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) finalised at COP29 “calls on all actors to work together to enable the scaling up of financing to developing country Parties for climate action from all public and private sources to at least $1.3tn per year by 2035.”

In line with this goal, Climate Action’s Sustainable Investment Forums will empower financial stakeholders to lead the sustainable economic transformation, advancing resilience, inclusion, and climate leadership throughout capital markets.   

Returning to Paris for its 8th annual edition on 29th April, the Sustainable Investment Forum Europe will convene financial executives, investors, and policymakers to address pressing challenges—economic uncertainty, inflation, and geopolitical tensions—through actionable insights and strategic frameworks.    

The Forum will emphasise the critical need to mobilise and align financial resources within Europe’s sustainable finance ecosystem, facilitating a just transition in support of both Europe’s sustainability objectives and the overarching goals of COP30. 

In 2024, David Atkin, CEO of Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) offered the opening keynote, calling for a transformative policy environment for the real economy. 

The Climate-Nature Nexus panel emphasised the importance of mitigating nature-related risks and harnessing opportunities through organisational strategy, stewardship, stakeholder engagement, and disclosure. Leveraging natural assets in sustainable portfolios will be a key theme at this year’s Forums, with COP30 in Belém expected to place a strong focus on nature. 

During Climate Week New York, taking place 21-28 September, the Sustainable Investment Forum North America, in official partnership with UNEP’s Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI), will set the stage for the finance community.  

Last year’s opening panel, What Do Leading Investors in North America Need From Policymakers on Net Zero?, featured Bertrand Millot, Head of Sustainability at CDPQ; Carine Smith Ihenacho, Chief Governance and Compliance Officer at Norges Bank; Rev. Kristen Spalding, Vice President of the Investor Network at Ceres; Pedro Guazo, Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF); and Peter Cashion, Managing Investment Director of Sustainable Investments at CalPERS. The panel was moderated by Remco Fischer, Head of Climate at UNEP-FI. 

Carine Smith Ihenacho shared a message on why organisations must speed up their decarbonisation, “Climate risk is financial risk. If you have a financial investor or a company, you better take that into account. It is affecting the world economy. It is affecting individual companies. It is affecting our portfolio, and it is affecting other people’s portfolios.” 

Remy Rioux, CEO of the French Development Agency, ended the Forum with a strong message for the audience, "Sustainable finance right now is highly fragmented. We have frameworks dating back to the 1960s and all shades of ESG - public and private. We need a public framework that stops opposing climate growth." 

Climate Innovation Forum  

On 25th June, the Climate Innovation Forum will return for its seventh year as a flagship event of London Climate Action Week. Taking place in London’s Guildhall, the high-level event will bring together business leaders, policymakers, investors and senior civil society representatives to accelerate the speed and scale of collective efforts in driving climate action.  

Embracing the UK Government’s renewed climate ambitions, the Forum will be a key event to facilitate multi-stakeholder collaboration for increased action and impact on the Roadmap to COP30. It will focus on the practical steps required to keep 1.5ºC alive: unblocking delivery barriers, getting investment flowing where it’s needed, and sharing best practice that can be replicated at speed and scale.  

At last year’s Forum, John Podesta, Senior Advisor to President Biden for International Climate Policy, Executive Office of the President of the United States, provided a keynote address on accelerating action and the need to “run, not walk.”  

Key discussions included UN Special Envoy Mahmoud Mohieldin, FinDev CEO Lori Kerr, and Nick O’Donohoe, former CEO of British International Investment, on increasing financial flows to the Global South, as well as Dr. Vanessa Chan, Chief Commercialisation Officer at the US Department of Energy, and Bailey Morrow, Managing Director of Climate Tech at HSBC Innovation Banking, on scaling critical climate technologies. 

Climate Action Innovation Zone 

During COP30 in Brazil, the Climate Action Innovation Zone will run alongside the Blue and Green Zones for its fifth year. It will offer an independent platform for cross-sector collaboration, bringing together thousands of leaders and practitioners from business, finance, cities, regions and countries to drive climate action at speed and scale across its three flagship events: the Sustainable Innovation Forum (SIF), the Agri-Food Systems Summit (AFSS), and the Hydrogen Transition Summit (HTS).  

COP29’s SIF highlighted the critical need for innovation, finance, and policy alignment to drive global climate goals. Speaking on the opening panel, Lord Adair Turner, Chair of the Energy Transitions Commision (ETC) addressed the need to align the private sector and public policy: “We need public policy to say we want to meet stretching objectives, we need corporations to accept that challenge and begin to develop the technology. But where there is a green cost premium, we will need carbon pricing and regulation.” 

Patricia Espinosa, CEO and Founding Partner of onepoint5, welcomed attendees to the second day of SIF with a strong message on the economic imperative of climate change: “if we don’t act sufficiently, global GDP could shrink 18% by 2050, not only as a country, not only as a government, but also at the sub-national level, we need to have a plan; how will we get to the 1.5-degree goal by the end of the century?” 

Climate Action Coalition 

Launched and supported by international climate leaders including John Kerry and Jennifer Morgan in 2024, the Climate Action Coalition has an acute focus on the practical steps required to unblock delivery barriers over the next five years, get investment flowing where it’s needed, and sharing solutions that can be replicated at speed and scale. 

Across Climate Action’s events, the Coalition will provide ongoing dialogue between industries and sectors, and across borders, to transfer knowledge, break down silos, unite stakeholders, connect value chains, facilitate collaboration, and shape policy through its five taskforces: Clean Power, AI & Digitalisation, Built Environment, Nature & Biodiversity, and the British Clean Power Taskforce.  

As the world continues its efforts towards climate action, the coming year will be crucial in maintaining momentum and ensuring that existing commitments translate into meaningful progress, whilst setting new ambitions that will ultimately shape a sustainable future for all. 

To find out more about Climate Action’s Roadmap to COP30 and opportunities for partnership, visit: 

Sustainable Investment Forum Europe

Climate Innovation Forum

Sustainable Investment Forum North America

Sustainable Innovation Forum – Climate Action Innovation Zone

Agri-Food Systems Summit  – Climate Action Innovation Zone

Hydrogen Transition Summit – Climate Action Innovation Zone

For further information on the Climate Action Coalition, contact coalition@climateaction.org