Making the Action Agenda an Effective Engine of Implementation

At COP30, Parties committed to a new era focused on implementing the Paris Agreement. The Action Agenda, the implementation tier of multilateralism, is critical architecture to enable that. A year of Friends of the Action Agenda discussions has identified ways to make it an effective driver of accelerated implementation including ministerial and non-state actor “Axis Pairs”, country Action Agenda focal points and public-private fora throughout the year. The next year is an opportunity to test, learn and iterate but that will require governments and non-state actors to back the ones they think would work. We invite you to reflect on the ideas and share feedback at copaction@wbcsd.org.

The Action Agenda: The implementation tier of multilateralism

For thirty years, global political attention on climate action has largely focused on negotiations: 198 Parties agreeing goals and rules by consensus. That remains indispensable. It produced the Paris Agreement, the Global Stocktake and national plans through Nationally Determined Contributions.

But agreeing a goal does not deliver it. Delivery depends on decisions taken by those who hold the levers: ministers setting grid rules and procurement standards; companies deciding what to invest in, which fleets to buy and which supply chains to build; cities and regions planning infrastructure, Multilateral Development Banks scaling and aligning investment. No single actor can deliver the transition alone and each has a different role to play.

This is the focus of the Action Agenda. It is where governments and non-state actors can voluntarily cooperate and form coalitions of the willing around shared challenges, align on what is needed to make progress, and collaborate on concrete action. The COP30 Presidency described this as the implementation tier of multilateralism, alongside the negotiations as the consensus tier. To strengthen this tier, it structured the Global Climate Action Agenda for the next five years to 2030 around six axes – energy & industry, nature, agriculture & food, infrastructure & cities, human development and finance – directly linked to tackling the gaps laid out in the first Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement. This creates a backbone to provide implementation momentum from COP-to-COP. It does not replace the negotiations, which remain a critical mechanism to ratchet national-and-global-level ambition, but at its best the Action Agenda works alongside, translating negotiated outcomes into investment, policy and delivery, and feeding realities on implementation progress and gaps back.

Recognition of the need and value of this implementation tier is growing. The COP31 President-Designate has described the need to “turn climate targets into measurable, actionable steps through our Action Agenda.” The UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, has called for it to take “centre-stage complementary to the negotiations,” and remains committed to support countries and stakeholders to innovate and make it fit-for-purpose.

However, without a shift in how governments, businesses, Presidencies and other actors engage with it, the Action Agenda risks remaining operationally useful but politically peripheral. Efforts through the Action Agenda are not confined to COP: delivery and momentum happens throughout the year, across climate weeks, the UN General Assembly, individual initiative Ministerials and private sector convenings, pre-COP meetings, and regional forums. But COP remains the apex moment. It is where the governments, businesses and sub-national actors supported by the Presidency and the Climate High-level Champions can concentrate political and economic attention and turn a year of work into visible outcomes.

The impetus to further strengthen the Action Agenda is clear. Through the Mutirão Decision at COP30, Parties resolved to decisively transition to a new era focussed on the implementation of the Paris Agreement. The disaster in Nepal earlier this year, and discussions at the pre-COP in Fiji highlighted even more clearly the gaps between real-time impacts and the pace of action.

The question now is how to make the Action Agenda the most effective engine it can be for implementation.

Opportunities to make the Action Agenda a more effective driver for implementation

Over the past year, WBCSD and the Breakthrough Agenda have co-convened the Friends of the Action Agenda, an informal space for governments, Presidencies, the UNFCCC Secretariat, the Climate High-Level Champions and key partners to explore this question. The discussions highlighted five opportunities to move the Action Agenda from meaningful progress that is often diffused and under-reported to a driver of political and economic momentum and a centrifugal force that mobilises significant implementation progress each year.

• Make implementation outcomes a central pillar of COP success: Participants saw a clear opportunity to generate more progress that supports the success of each COP by harnessing political capital behind a small number of outcomes each year. This requires building momentum through the year, at the pre-COP, ministerials, the G20, UNGA, climate weeks and regional forums, so that by the time leaders arrive at COP, outcomes are ready to land.
• Focus over proliferation. There is often lack of full visibility into the most significant implementation gaps and into the existing initiatives that could close them. The result is “initiative-itis”: launching new activities rather than mobilising behind what already works. Participants emphasised the value of harnessing existing efforts where possible.
• Widening relevance and participation. A great strength of the Action Agenda is that it can enable targeted engagement from the actors best placed to accelerate specific solutions. However, many Action Agenda initiatives are led by, and engage a small group of countries and non-state actors, so some voices can be lost. To drive implementation at scale, the Action Agenda must do more to support the implementation challenges of emerging and developing economies and the ones most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
• Making delivery visible. Significant implementation is already under way through the Action Agenda, but it rarely registers in the political and media narrative of COP outcomes. This requires clearer evidence and trusted spokespeople on what has been delivered, and by whom.
• A drumbeat throughout the year. The Action Agenda can drive a continuum of delivery from COP to COP, with clear signals about progress to inspire the multilateral process.

Ideas generated during discussions

Through the discussions a number of specific ideas were generated to support these opportunities. We are publishing them to stimulate debate and help prioritise the most impactful approaches. Not everyone will agree with all of them, and others will have further ideas. We also don’t know exactly which will work best, however, the consensus from the discussions we have held is that we have to start testing them.

They fall into three groups: creating political and economic momentum towards and at COP, bringing the right actors in, and sustaining momentum and making delivery visible.

These ideas build on innovations already under way. Recent Presidencies have appointed dedicated Action Agenda teams working in partnership with the UNFCCC Secretariat and the Climate Champions Team. The Global Climate Action Agenda Five-Year Plan now provides a durable structure from COP to COP, with Coordination Groups that bring together different initiatives. The opportunity is to build on that progress, not start again.

Creating political and economic momentum

These ideas are focused on making COP the apex implementation moment of the year, driving significant outcomes from COP-to-COP and sustaining momentum through the two weeks of COP itself.

• A Ministerial pair and non-state actor pair for each Action Agenda Axis, appointed through to GST2 (Axis Pairs). Drawing on the model used in the negotiations but expanded to include non-state actors, globally representative pairs would support Presidencies and Climate High-level Champions to identify voluntary implementation outcomes where urgency is greatest, impact is strongest, and collaboration is most needed. They would operate outside of the negotiations with a focus on implementation outcomes and could be drawn from line ministries for governments. They would build momentum towards each COP across the year by consulting, unblocking bottlenecks, profiling solutions, feeding evidence and mobilising existing initiatives, rather than creating new structures. Because they would serve through to GST2, they could also give continuity across Presidencies, carrying priorities from one COP to the next.
• A World Leaders Summit that works as a landing zone for implementation outcomes. Leaders’ set-piece moments could be used to mobilise progress on implementation. A clean energy segment, for example, could give leaders space to announce action beyond their NDCs on clean power, grids, transport, buildings and industry with parallel announcements from business, finance and subnational leaders and an Action Agenda delivery package built with initiatives. Preparation would start months ahead, with the Presidency inviting governments, sub-nationals and businesses to bring announcements and the Champions and Axis pairs working with the Coordination Groups and initiatives on the package. This moment could create momentum into the negotiations, and jeopardy, as countries, mayors and CEOs seek a place in a high-profile implementation moment.
• Action Agenda Ministerials throughout COP. Chaired by the Axis Pairs, these would go deeper on what was announced at the Leaders’ Summit. They would give governments, sub-nationals and business a recurring space to announce actions, share solutions, identify gaps and develop priorities for the next COP, and give media a running hook.
  An Action Agenda segment in the Closing Plenary, with the Axis Pairs reporting to the Presidency on aggregated progress across the two weeks. This would provide space to profile implementation progress alongside negotiated outcomes.

Bringing the right actors in

• Voluntary Action Agenda focal points. Each country could nominate a focal point for the Action Agenda and set out its priority topics, thus increasing country engagement in the Action Agenda and ensuring broad and inclusive participation. This could bring in ministries beyond the negotiating team, such as energy, finance, agriculture, industry and transport, who hold the implementation levers. The UNFCCC secretariat and the Climate High-level Champions could support focal points to understand the Action Agenda architecture, identify opportunities for engagement including relevant initiatives for that countries’ priorities, or advise on standing up new ones where gaps exist, based on knowledge of progress and opportunities. Focal points would give a year-round but light-touch and voluntary channel for engagement.
• Match-making spaces and forums at COP and through the year providing opportunities for reflection and engagement across different actors on implementation priorities and connect countries with relevant initiatives, businesses and investors who can support on implementation challenges. Facilitated by the Champions and the UNFCCC secretariat, these could build on existing country platforms, focus on a few priority sectors, and track follow-up through to the next COP.
• Continued Global Climate Action Agenda space in the Blue Zone, and increasing access for Action Agenda initiatives, linked to the submission of action and progress data while providing opportunities to support those who need it most. Keeping the Action Agenda in the Blue Zone places implementation alongside the negotiations rather than apart from them and linking access to reporting and needs without disproportionate reporting burdens creates an incentive to show progress.

Sustaining momentum and making delivery visible

Even with a clearer architecture, momentum may dissipate between COPs, and progress from many efforts may not be effectively communicated.

• A consultation, led by Presidencies, Champions, the Action Agenda Coordination Groups and Axis Pairs, to consolidate existing Action Agenda innovations and surface new ones. This would capture what has worked across recent COPs, so that Presidencies and Climate High-level Champions build on their predecessors’ work.
• Head of Delegation sessions ahead of COP focused on the Action Agenda outcomes that could be mobilised and on implementation progress. Convened by the Presidency, Climate High-level Champions, Axis Pairs and initiatives, these would bring implementation into the room where negotiators already meet, linking what is agreed to what is being delivered.
• A year-round cycle using Climate Weeks to carry priorities from COP to COP and connect the global process to national and regional realities, including fixing UNFCCC regional events alongside existing climate weeks. Presidencies, Champions and Axis Pairs could use these weeks as staging points for priority outcomes: testing announcements, convening ministers, sub-nationals and businesses, and checking progress on commitments from the previous COP.
• A press conference at the close of each COP tracking Action Agenda initiatives and profiling progress by initiatives and actors against Global Climate Action Agenda objectives. Released alongside the negotiated outcome, the report would show what was delivered in the previous year, by whom, and what is coming next, providing clear data on implementation

Applied to a priority such as electrification, success at the close of COP31 would be hundreds of countries, companies and subnational governments reporting action and announcing plans, with a clear aggregated signal on implementation and an Action Agenda implementation package, with electrification outcomes and progress a part of the COP’s outcome alongside negotiated text.

Building the momentum: test, learn and iterate

The Action Agenda’s strength has always been its flexibility, testing what works and evolving. These ideas are offered in that spirit. Not every idea will work, the only way to find out is to try them.

So, our invitation is to:

• Consider the ideas and tell us which you believe would make the biggest difference, and what is missing.
• Get behind the ones you think would work. The Presidencies, the Climate High-Level Champions and the UNFCCC Secretariat can help deliver but they need governments and non-state actors to show which approaches have backing.
• Put them in practice. We all hold the keys to making these ideas a success. The Action Agenda becomes an implementation engine when everyone treats it as part of their own effort focused on what can we do, and what do we need others to do.

We will keep convening the Friends of the Action Agenda through 2026 and 2027. We will capture what is tried, what works and generate more ideas, so that we continue to build on what works from COP-to-COP.

Over the next couple of years, the opportunity is to create an implementation tier that better enables governments, business and finance to act together on shared challenges, shift investment and be clear on progress, gaps and next steps. Getting there will take many hands, and a willingness to try.

Share your views at copaction@wbcsd.org