‘Triple COP’ year presents an unmissable opportunity, says UNFCCC

This year marks the first time since 2024 that the three Rio Conventions will hold their COP meetings in the same year, presenting an unmissable opportunity for businesses to invest in global efforts on climate change , biodiversity loss and land degradation, the UNFCCC has said. The UN Convention to Combat Desertification’s COP17 is currently taking place in Mongolia, and is set to conclude on 28 August. It will be followed by the Convention on Biological Diversity’s COP17 in Armenia in October and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s COP31 in Türkiye in November. The potential outcomes of these events were explored in an article written by Yasmine Fouad, executive secretary, UNCCD, Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary, CBD, and Simon Stiell, executive secretary, UNFCCC, which was published on the latter’s website. ‘Harness the synergies’ As the authors noted, the bi-annual alignment of the COP meetings is an ‘opportunity to harness the synergies between these three intertwined mandates’. Each COP taking place this year has an official business forum – the UNCCD COP17 Business4Land Forum (24 August), the CBD COP17 Business Forum (25 October) and the UNFCCC COP31 Business & Investment Summit (12-13 November) – which will focus on the ‘need to expand and deepen public coordination with the private sector in key areas such as policy signals, investment pathways and market incentives’, they added. Impact on global economy According to the authors, land degradation, desertification and drought costs the global economy around $878 billion annually, while climate-related disasters have already caused $3.6 trillion in damage this century – with more to follow. It also states that $577 billion in annual crop production is at risk from pollinator loss and that up to half of the world’s rangelands are degraded, putting one-sixth of global food supply and a massive carbon reservoir at risk. And that’s to say nothing of the coming effect of a powerful El Niño . As the authors noted, the green economy enables businesses to respond to these pressures – currently valued at around $5 trillion annually, it could be worth $7 trillion by 2030, with green revenues growing twice as fast as conventional revenues. ‘However, investments against nature still outstrip nature-positive investments by 30:1,’ they added. ‘In 2023, the private sector was directing $4.9 trillion toward nature-negative activity, but only $23 billion toward nature-based solutions. This triple COP year provides crucial opportunities to turn the tide.’ Read more here . [Photo: UN Climate Change]