From Ambition to Implementation: Business Delivering at COP31
Overview
COP31 is a critical moment to turn global climate ambition into accelerated implementation across the real economy.
Taking place in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9–20 November 2026, WBCSD is working with the COP31 Presidencies of Türkiye and Australia, governments, businesses and partners to close implementation gaps, accelerate practical solutions and strengthen the partnerships needed to deliver progress beyond the COP.
The Global Climate Action Agenda (GCAA) complements and reinforces the formal negotiations, providing a platform for voluntary initiatives, partnerships and coalitions that can accelerate implementation. The COP31 Action Agenda continues to deliver across the six axes of the Global Climate Action Agenda established at COP30.
Within the COP31 Action Agenda there are ten priority implementation outcomes with WBCSD contributing in five areas;
The Action Agenda will provide opportunities throughout COP31 for stakeholders to showcase initiatives, share best practice and build partnerships that can accelerate delivery.
Mobilizing WBCSD’s global business community at COP31
For WBCSD members, COP31 is where implementation translate into competitiveness, resilience and long-term value. As a partner for implementation, WBCSD connects members with policymakers, investors and partners to help turn ambition into action and deliver tangible business outcomes. WBCSD’s program is designed to bring business directly into the Action Agenda, mobilizing members around the priorities where collective action can accelerate progress. Access WBCSD Program at COP31 to find out more about our engagement:
Our engagement will focus on three priorities:
Priority areas/tracks
Shaping COPs to enable business action
WBCSD will help shape an Action Agenda that enables businesses to scale solutions faster. Working alongside the COP31 Presidency, WBCSD will bring business perspectives into high-level discussions, helping strengthen the role of business in delivering the outcomes of COP31.
This includes business representation at the World Leaders Summit, partnering on the COP31 Business Forum and Business & Investment Summit and convening the Friends of the Action Agenda with governments.
Closing implementation gaps
WBCSD will showcase what is already working and mobilize action where progress needs to accelerate.
WBCSD will bring solutions and business action through specific initiatives, demonstrating progress across sectors and moving forward the frontiers on the policies, investment, technologies and collaboration needed to scale implementation.
We will support the Presidency’s priorities while also tracking wider business action across the Global Climate Action Agenda, including nature, resilience, finance, technology and the transition to more circular and resource-efficient economies.
Sparking connections
COP31 provides a unique opportunity to bring the right people together to tackle blockers and develop solutions. WBCSD will convene business leaders, policymakers, investors and partners through targeted high-level moments, roundtables and events designed to build the relationships and coalitions needed to accelerate implementation.
A WBCSD business delegation will engage with policymakers, while dedicated member engagement opportunities will create space for members to connect, exchange experiences and identify opportunities for collaboration around the priorities shaping COP31.
Members attending COP31 should complete our COP participation survey to be considered for the business delegation and to be kept informed of speaking and networking opportunities. The survey link is shared with WBCSD members during our Member briefings. Please contact copaction@wbcsd.org for more information.
Key WBCSD flagship moments
The age of electricity: transitioning energy, industry and transport
Tuesday 10 November, 08:30 – 09:30, Antalya
With a focus on implementation, this official Action Agenda event will showcase specific actions by national and subnational governments, businesses and other non-government organizations to drive investment and create the conditions that accelerate electrification of energy use in industry, transport and buildings around the world.
For more information about this event, please contact copaction@wbcsd.org
The Resilience Table: A dinner discussion and reception
Co-hosted by CMS and SKD Türkiye
Wednesday 11 November, 18:30 –20:30, Antalya
This informal, high-energy dinner brings together leaders from across business, finance, policy and the NGO community to turn shared ambition on resilience and adaptation into real connections and concrete next steps.
During the evening, we will explore enabling resilience through different lenses: Data, Financing & Policy.
Register your interest in attending the reception here.
The Action Agenda as an engine of implementation
Friday 13 November, 16:45 – 18:15, Antalya
At this official side event in partnership with OECD and SB COP, we will explore how the Action Agenda can serve as an engine for implementation, connecting climate ambition with practical action across sectors.
The session will provide a platform to bring the business perspective into the Action Agenda and strengthen the role of companies in translating COP priorities into real-economy implementation.
For more information about this event, please contact copaction@wbcsd.org
WBCSD Executive Dinner reception
Co-hosted by Sabanci Holding, in collaboration with Deloitte Global and SAP*
Friday 13 November, 18:00 – 20:30, Antalya
Co-host:
In collaboration with:
Co-hosted with Sabanci Holding, in collaboration with Deloitte Global and SAP, the WBCSD Executive Dinner Reception will bring together CEOs, Council Members and senior leaders from business, government, science and other leading institutions at the close of COP31’s high-level segment to reflect on progress achieved and look ahead to the priorities that may shape the conference’s decisive second week.
With a focus on electrification as a catalyst for the energy transition, industrial competitiveness and sustainable growth, participants will explore the actions and collaborations that could unlock the next wave of investment and success at COP31.
For more information, please contact events@wbcsd.org.
*The organizers seek to comply with federal, state, and local gift rules. Please ensure that your attendance at this event complies with applicable gift laws in your jurisdiction, as we cannot accept payment for the cost of attending this event.
WBCSD resources for Business Action on Climate, Nature and Circularity
Ahead of COP31, we have gathered a selection of WBCSD publications that show where business action is heading and how to put it into practice. The collection spans electrification, risk-informed capital allocation, physical climate risk and board accountability, avoided emissions, people-centered climate action, carbon alignment in the built environment, and the Global Circularity Protocol for Business. Each resource is written for practitioners, from finance and sustainability leaders to policymakers, designers and boards, and offers frameworks, tools and examples you can use right away. Explore them before the event and join the conversations at COP31 to turn them into action.
Solutions and insights we’re bringing to COP31:
Electrification and Business Insights
A Business and Regulatory Navigator to Accelerate Electrification
A navigator for businesses and regulators setting out five action areas to speed up electrification across transport, data centers, buildings and industry.
Closing the Electrification Gap: Six Priority Actions to Unlock Investment
A brief for policymakers, regulators and system operators that sets out six priority actions, from reforming grid queues and permitting to providing capital support for conversion.
Business Breakthrough Barometer 2026: The Annual Pulse Check
An annual survey of 500+ business leaders across 50 economies on how companies are responding to climate risks and what policy conditions are needed to unlock transition investment.
Managing Risk
Risk-informed Capital Allocation
A practical framework, with an investment committee template and worked example, that helps finance, risk and sustainability leaders make uncertainty, downside exposure and the risk of inaction more explicit in existing capital-allocation processes.
From Physical Risk to Financial Decision-Making
A discussion paper that gives Corporate Finance and FP&A teams a diagnostic and five-level maturity model for translating physical climate and nature risks into financial planning.
Physical Risk and Board Accountability in the UK
A practical framework that helps UK directors understand their exposure to physical climate and nature risks, strengthen board oversight and embed these risks in decision-making in line with their duties under the Companies Act 2006.
Member Insights Report 2026
Drawing on 27 member interviews from WBCSD’s 2026 Member Insights Report, this report finds that board support for climate adaptation is growing but formal goals, budgets and monitoring still lag, and that companies want better ways to measure adaptation value, embed it in governance and build system-level resilience.
Climate Action and Circularity
Avoided Emissions of Digital Solutions
Sector-specific guidance for digital solution providers, investors and policymakers on credibly assessing avoided emissions, covering five enabling mechanisms, seven methodological topics such as reference scenarios and rebound effects, and three worked case studies.
Avoided Emissions: Focus on the investment case
A report for corporate finance teams and external capital providers that uses option theory to show how avoided emissions can inform financial assumptions, scenario analysis, staged investment decisions and transition credibility within established capital allocation frameworks.
A People-Centered Approach to Climate Action
This publication sets out four common blockers to integrating people considerations into climate and nature strategies, three sector case studies, and three concrete actions companies can take now, as the first in a series ahead of WBCSD’s People-Centered Climate Action Roadmap.
Bridging Design and Construction for Carbon Alignment
A report that sets out eight best practices, each assigned to a responsible party, for keeping carbon reduction intent intact as projects move from design into construction.
The Global Circularity Protocol for Business: Version 1.0
A voluntary framework that gives companies standardized steps and metrics to measure, manage and communicate circularity across value chains, built around a corporate performance and accountability system, a policy framework and science-based targets.
And don’t miss
During the course of COP31 we’ll be launching the following new resources. Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest updates.
- Electrification Navigator
- Reporting Matters: Insights and Trends
- Business Primers on measurement (nature)
- Chemical sector roadmap
- Carbon dioxide removal
- Highlights from the Nature Reporting Preparer Forum
- CSO Action Guide
- Market-Based Solutions Hub
- Position paper: Measuring Nature
- Climate Resilience Awards winner announcement
- Zero-Emission Freight Corridors
- Decision-Useful WLC data
- Water Resilience Guidance
For more details, please contact the COP Action Team
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