Ten years on from the Paris Agreement, COP30 is being held at an extremely pivotal moment for climate change action, the global community, and the Earth itself. The COP30 President, Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, has called for the accelerated implementation of the Paris Agreement at this critical time, hoping that COP30 will be a summit of solutions. As is tradition at UBP, we have put together our own wish list for what we hope can be achieved at this year’s COP summit.
1. Continued commitment
It used to be that we wished for greater momentum at every summit; the planet's situation certainly deserves it. But this time around, things have changed: the US has officially withdrawn from the Agreement, and this will have major repercussions. So far, no other country has left the Paris Agreement, which can be counted as a major success and long may it last.
For now, one-third of nations have announced their 2035 climate pledges. However, some significant emitters are still missing. We hope to hear from the European Union and India before the beginning of the COP summit. Continued commitment to the process and the delivery of targets (even if less ambitious than once hoped in some cases) will provide some comfort that most of the world is still very much concerned about climate change and willing to make progress.
2. More ideas about a ‘corporate reset’
The last 24 months have been difficult considering the corporate commitment to addressing climate change. The so-called ‘ESG backlash’ has led to a number of negative headlines and industry alliances losing members (e.g. the Net Zero Banking Alliance).
UBP’s Impact Equity team has a long-held belief that asset and portfolio managers can play a positive role in climate actions and solutions, but that does not mean we should not adapt to a new reality in which the climate consensus is weakened. We hope COP30 will bring new ideas on this front. Do we need to renew our ambitions to reach current targets, or work towards a complete ‘climate reset’, as advocated by Michael Liebreich? The debate has begun.
3. Continued convergence with nature
The last few years have seen nature become increasingly prominent at climate COPs. The location of COP30 in Belém, Brazil, which follows on from the most recent UN biodiversity conference in Cali, Colombia, supports a strong nature agenda, given that these are two of the most biologically diverse countries in the world and both suffer the direct consequences of resource exploitation.
We hope to see a focus on food systems, given the sector's importance in Brazil, and a spotlight on nature-based solutions to climate change, as these are integral to Brazil's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement and the world itself.
4. A price for carbon
For many economists, carbon pricing is the most efficient mechanism that can help reduce emissions, however, a global carbon price is very difficult to put in place. Most countries have mentioned some form of carbon pricing in their climate plans, and yet there is still a long way to go to finalise what it could look like at global level. We are nonetheless keeping it on our wish list, as we believe it would be a major step forward.
