COP28: Central Themes and Impacts for Businesses

The 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) drew to a late close in December after two weeks of negotiations touching on energy, nature, carbon markets, finance and fairness as central themes. 

Whilst there was pressure for governments to do more, the private sector can also be an important actor in mobilising clean finance, producing robust transition plans, and developing voluntary carbon markets. 

Our round up of the first week of COP28 draws together the themes and developments that are most likely to have the greatest relevance for businesses, including that:

• sustainable energy will be key to climate action;
• fossil fuels moved closer to finding a way forward; 
• discussions branched out into nature-positive finance and solutions;
• there is a need for robust voluntary carbon markets;
• climate finance commitments have increased; and 
• loss and damage talks reached crucial agreement. 

In the second week of COP, the text of the Global Stocktake of countries' efforts to address climate change was agreed after last minute negotiations. 

Alongside this, four significant developments for business emerged: the energy transition, climate finance, the just transition, and the role of nature. We consider the main elements of the Global Stocktake Text and what it means for companies and financial institutions in our briefing COP28: Impacts for Business.