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How the 2026 action agenda can turn climate pledges into real results
In this episode of the Sustainability Matters podcast, discover how the outcomes of COP30 are setting 2026 up as the year of climate action from businesses.
Related topics
In this episode of the Sustainability Matters podcast, hosts Elanne Almeida, EY LATAM Industrials and Energy Lead for Climate Change and Sustainability Services (CCaSS), and Matthew Handford, EY CCaSS Lead for Financial Services in the Americas, unpack the pivotal outcomes of COP30 and what they mean for the year ahead. This episode moves beyond the conference itself to focus on how its decisions are shaping business and policy strategies for 2026.
Listeners will hear insights from global leaders and industry professionals on the shift from climate pledges to implementation, the rise of accountability frameworks, and the growing role of collaboration between the private and public sectors. Discover how new transparency requirements, ambitious national climate plans (NDCs) and innovative collaborations are setting the stage for measurable progress in sustainability — and why 2026 is poised to be a defining year for climate action worldwide.
Key takeaways:
- While governments set the framework, it is businesses that are increasingly taking the initiative, driving innovation and providing results on sustainability commitments.
- With new accountability measures and expectations, 2026 is set to be a year where business-led action can define the pace and scale of global climate progress.
You can also listen to this podcast on Apple, Spotify and Libsyn.
For your convenience, full text transcript of this podcast is also available.
Elanne Almeida
Years of climate talks and the question still remains: are we doing enough? As we move into 2026, many businesses and governments are setting bold agendas, prioritizing climate action, clean energy and resilient supply chains, while others are slowing their pace, reassessing commitments and searching for other paths forward. Many global plans may be reshaped by the outcomes of COP30, the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference that concluded in Brazil in late November. Today, we'll break down the key outcomes from COP30, explore how they influence corporate and policy strategies, and uncover what's on the horizon for sustainability in 2026.Ricardo Assumpção
We need to be together, businesses of course, with diplomacy and with the public sector.Pablo Carvajal
Implementation, implementation, implementation. Success will be defined less by new promises and pledges, and more by proof of delivery.Almeida
Welcome to EY Sustainability Matters podcast. My name is Elanne Almeida. I am the EY Latin American Industrials And Energy Lead For Climate Change And Sustainability Services. And together with me, my colleague Matt, we are hosting today's episode.Matt Hanford
Thanks, Elanne. And hi, everyone. I'm Matt Hanford. I lead Climate Change and Sustainability Services for the Financial Services Sector in EY Americas.Almeida
Both Matt and I were on the ground at COP30. This year was different because of logistical challenges, and a lot of business meetings happened in Sao Paulo a week before COP convened in Belem. For example, Sao Paulo saw the launch of the Tropical Forest Forever fund (TFFF) with over six billion pledged to support forest protection. Business leaders that met in Sao Paulo the weeks before COP pushed for stronger policies for financing the energy transition, with an open letter asking governments urgently for incentives to adopt renewable energy in lieu of fossil fuels.And in Rio, we had subnational authorities meeting commitments to integrate city-level resilience into sustainable development plans. And, of course, Earthshot Prizes delivered by Prince William in recognition of contributions to environmentalism over the last year.
Hanford
That's right, Elanne. And it was fascinating to me seeing the precursor activities in Sao Paulo and Rio, as you just mentioned. But we were both in Belem for the COP30 conference, representing EY. And I just thought it was a fascinating introduction to somewhere that is really close to the heart of many of the issues that we're talking about, whether it's biodiversity, nature, climate, rainforests. Elanne, can you talk just a little bit more about what felt different this year, the energy, the urgency during COP?Almeida
Well, this was not my first COP but, of course, the fact that it was hosted by Brazil made it even more special to me. We have been preparing ourselves for over one year, I mean, as a firm, for this event.Over the course of two weeks, we had the chance to interact with nearly 3,000 people, talk to them, learn from them about so many topics that are so close to my heart and my career choice. So we talked about nature, biodiversity, resilient cities, infrastructure, carbon market, blended finance, artificial intelligence, fair transition. It was amazing to hear from those people how committed they are to make things different this time. It was a really powerful experience. I think that those were the main topics that we discussed. So I wonder if it was any different for you and from what you've heard at COP, Matt?
Hanford
I would just echo everything you just said, and I know we'll talk a little bit more about what made it special in Belem as well. But for me, being the 30th meeting of the parties to the UNFCCC was a real milestone. Just some of the themes I think really resonated, whether it was elevating climate finance for adaptation and resilience, food systems, nature integration, just and equitable transition mechanisms.And really underpinning all of this for me was — you're to have to call me out on my Portuguese saying of mutirão, — but really enhancing multilateral cooperation. And that was a key aspect to this. So there were a lot of interesting things. I know we'll get into some of that throughout this discussion as well as hear from some others, but there was a fantastic spirit throughout the two-week process.
And for me, it was really just something special being there. Perhaps before we get into some of the details around COP and the outcomes from COP, let's talk a little bit about the significance of where it was held, being Belem. Elanne, you had mentioned some of those aspects, the relevance to Indigenous communities, being on the footsteps of the Amazon, and just the way that Brazil represented the Global South. Do you want to just talk a little bit more about that and what it meant to you, being Brazilian?
Almeida
I had a bit of mixed feeling when I heard about the choice of Belem as the hosting city. When we think about an event of this magnitude, we always imagine that this should be held in a city with all the infrastructure to receive tens of thousands of people comfortably and provide the accommodation, the transport, fast mobility, because we know that people need to go from the hotels and restaurants to the green or blue zone, let alone the business houses that have been established in Belem. In this sense, I thought São Paulo or Rio would have been my first choices, but I'm happy to say that Belem proved me wrong. Really happy to say, to be honest, because Belem showed the raw reality of what a city that has been severely impacted by climate change looks like.For example, the frequency of rains has increased. This had an impact on agriculture, on city infrastructure, on health, on the livelihoods of communities. That's the reality of climate change, right? It's not what we see on the beautiful streets of, I don't know, Madrid, Glasgow or Baku, for example. One has to be in a city like Belem to really see it and experience it, has to be in a city like Belém to hear the voices of the Indigenous people who have been displaced by deforestation, for example, and see the way that their way of living is being erased from the maps. I think that reading about it is nowhere near as powerful as actually seeing it. So, accommodation shortage, yeah, makes the news. But I think that there was a lot more about the fact that Belem hosted the COP. We achieved a lot. And I think that the ones that were really keen to be there, to make a difference, were actually the ones that traveled to Belem and found their support and contributed to very powerful discussions. So, I think that, overall, it was a fantastic experience for me. So, let's hear what our EY Brazil Chief Sustainability Officer Ricardo Assumpção has to say about it as well.
Assumpção
We are in a very creative moment of geopolitics. For a long time, the Global South was maybe a part of the agenda that was requiring money from the Global North. But I don't see it this way. We need to, of course, have a balance. Part of the solutions are here. And what I see is the Global North paying not for a lost fund but paying for solutions.We can export solutions based on nature. Nature is part of the strategy, and we are seeing a lot of good initiatives related with that. We cannot forget the people, and the poor people are those that suffer more in the case of the extreme events like floods, like heat waves, like tornadoes. And important, we are already seeing all this, already observed the impact in Brazil for the very first time, but collaboration is mandatory. And what I mean about that?
Collaboration is how we can use blended finance or public money together with private capital to implement actions. And this combination is maybe the starting point of collaboration between the South and the North.
Hanford
That was Ricardo, EY Brazil's Chief Sustainability Officer, talking about how there needs to be a balance shift in the relationships between the Global North and South. And certainly, we can reflect a little bit more on some of those dynamics throughout this conversation. We also had an opportunity to hear from Colm Devine, who's the new EY Vice Chair for Sustainability. Colm shared his reflections on COP30, highlighting both the energy of the private sector and the complexity behind global climate negotiations. That's what stood out to him.Colm Devine
Certainly, for me personally, I met more people in one week than I did and would have done in six months. I really came away with this strong feeling that this is the COP of the private sector. So I think that's the first thing. The level of engagement actually in the COP itself was really, really strong. But a takeaway I didn't imagine was actually just how complex and challenging the negotiations are.And I use this phrase about the cutting room floor, which is what was sort of tentatively agreed on the way through, through the two weeks, but actually got cut under the cutting room floor in the last five or six hours and didn't make it into the agreement. And for me, that's where there's so much value is to care what was agreed, but actually what nearly made it. And I think for us as an organization, that's where we need to turn a lot of attention to. So my first impression is where I'm really looking forward to the next one.
Almeida
This COP was anticipated by many, partially because it was also the deadline for countries to submit their NDCs or Nationally Determined Contributions. Broadly speaking, NDCs are every country's climate plan, which they were expected to submit to the United Nations by this fall. We spoke with Pablo Carvajal, a director in the EY UK Climate Change and Sustainability Services practice, who has vast experience working with the NDCs, who told us more about the future of the NDC going forward.Carvajal
2025 marked the third round of NDCs since the treaty's inception in 2015 in Paris, with countries setting climate targets through 2035. The deadline was in September, and only a few countries submitted by then, but many countries have submitted in the lead to COP, during and even after the conference. So, by the end of the conference in November, over 122 parties had submitted NDCs to the UNFCCC, which includes these targets after 2035.And collectively, those cover between 75 to 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Now this is a high level of coverage, because many countries have submitted their 3.0 NDCs, including high emitters like the US, China, India, EU and other large economies. So it's a good outcome on how much emissions are being covered by NDCs. On the one hand, it's been great that many countries have submitted their NDCs. And the Paris Agreement is working in that sense. But on the other hand, the world is not where it needs to be. Meaning that those pledges and NDCs are not enough. The combined efforts with the current NDCs would reduce emissions about 12% below 2019 levels by 2035. And sadly, scientists say that this will get us anywhere between 2.3C to 2.5C by end of the century. To give you a better understanding of what this means, to be aligned with net zero, we need to reduce around 25 to 28 gigatons of CO2 by 2035. And the NDC reductions stayed around three to four gigatons of CO2 reductions. So, the NDCs, the current ones that were presented, only get us 50% of the reduction needed by 2035.
Now, to be fair, the projections said that emissions were going to grow anything between 30 to 50% by 2035. So now emissions are going to reduce by 12%. So there is curbing, but we need to curb way further to get us to 1.5 net zero. Now there are many reasons for that emissions gap. There are many factors. There's lack of policy, lack of finance, regulation. It's also on consumers, behavioral change, consumption patterns, slow uptake on renewable energy, slow uptake on storage. But I think the main reason today is a political, geopolitical and economic one. COP30 introduced several accountability mechanisms to ensure countries move from pledges to measurable action before the next global stocktake in 2028.
So the focus moved from voluntary pledges to mandatory reporting, indicators, reviews, political peer pressure, creating a new multilayered accountability system. And this is a very different approach from NDCs, which were more voluntary and commitments, and a bit bland, to moving to almost financial reporting levels of indicators, reviews and accountability. In my opinion, this is long overdue, but what had happened so far is that pledges had been ratcheted up, but implementation hadn't followed. And the only way to do that is integrating accountability frameworks.
COP30 has agreed on a common set of indicators for mitigation, adaptation and finance. So now parties are encouraged to disclose emission trajectory versus NDC targets: so their effective gap to reach their target. On top of that, COP30 introduced a peer pressure system. So they introduced a ministerial dialogue every two years, again, starting in 2026, to review collective progress and identify laggards. So the intention is that these dialogues will be public and linked to the global climate action agenda, increasing the reputational pressure among countries. So that's a huge change and a different way of seeing, reporting, and action and implementation from now on.
If 1.5C overshoot is likely, then success after COP30 means diligent implementation, implementation at scale, and implementation transparency. Implementation, implementation, implementation. So success will be defined less by new promises and pledges, and more by proof of delivery. And remember that negotiation has been always at the heart of COPs.
Now we're moving to COPs that want to discuss execution, not negotiation anymore. Success means also countries using these accountability frameworks, so the Enhanced Transparency Framework and the Biennial Transparency Reports, BTRs, to track NDC progress, finance received, adaptation actions, and having these reports undergo technical reviews and more public scrutiny towards them.
Almeida
If you'd like to learn more about NDCs in general and how businesses can interact with them, we encourage you to listen to the EY Sustainability Matters August episode called How national climate plans can reshape global investments.Hanford
Elanne, it's fascinating. As you heard from Pablo, there has obviously been an increase in the submission of NDCs by nation states, but there's still a lot of challenges that remain. I think there's good and bad to this, all these positives and challenges with it. I think it was encouraging to see these submissions. However, it was clear there was a lot of challenge in getting to these submissions. It's clear that countries are dealing with a lot at this moment. There's a lot of volatility with global economic markets. There is huge uncertainty about GDP growth and the relative impacts from an energy security and energy transition perspective. And I think all of this is weighing into the viability both in the short term and long term of these NDCs. And I think we saw some of that hesitancy play through before, during and after COP30. What are your thoughts?Almeida
I’ll try to share something that I heard from Ana Toni. Ana Toni was the, well, she still is, the CEO of this COP. And she hosted an event where she was sharing her views about the key achievements and the challenges, etc. And I'll start with a personal opinion first. And of course there is still a fundamental misalignment between those commitments and the 1.5 degrees target set by the IPCC, and the lack of credible fossil fuel phase-out plan does not help.But let's be honest, how feasible is that to expect that 195 countries will reach consensus around such a strategic topic? Asking those countries to have a clear path to transition out is just like asking Brazil to have a clear plan to move away from agribusiness or asking Germany to close all of its vehicle factories. So yes, there have been delays in that specific topic, but it did not stop the private sector, the global governments from reaching another 120 agreements to speed up the implementation of national plans around renewable energy and electric vehicles. And back specifically to the NDCs and how those things are so connected. Organizations like the OECD highlighted the need and benefits, actually, of integrating climate ambition into policies. And many nations are making NDCs part of a broader development and economic strategies. So on that note specifically, 56 new indicators have been agreed upon so that countries can measure and assess their level of vulnerability to climate change and better estimate the resources they need to invest on mitigation, adaptation. Ultimately, that will have an impact on NDCs.
So on one side, have national governments trying to navigate in that scenario that you just mentioned. At the same time, whilst it's not possible, given this specific scenario that we're living right now globally, it was not possible to be more ambitious, and yes, it is frustrating. We have the private sector being more ambitious this time and that for me was one of the highlights of this COP. The level and the number of multilateral agreements and commitments that have been made in terms of setting up more targets and more funds for transition, adaptation, mitigation measures above and beyond the NDCs. So I still believe that the outcome was positive, to be honest.
Hanford
I agree. And it was really interesting to see the dynamic and the interplay between private sector and the public sector and the nation delegates and the negotiation process. To your earlier point, alignment with the IPCC's 1.5-degree pathway does remain inconsistent from an NDC perspective. But it's also clear that private sector support is going to be needed going forward to support that 1.5-degree pathway. And I think that's where there's some really interesting opportunities, but also some risks, especially when you think of the North versus Global South dynamic. While some of those representing the countries on the forefront of climate change, like small island nations, were happy about the financial outcome of the summit, one of the things we keep hearing in the community is the sense of disappointment.Almeida
Yes, I sense that feeling of disappointment, but I'll try to look at the positive side. There is also appetite from businesses to engage with NDCs, as you’ll hear from our next guests.Trevor Hutchings
My name is Trevor Hutchings and I'm the Chief Executive of the REA, the renewable energy trade association. We have around 400 member businesses in the UK, and that's why I'm here. I'm here at COP in Belem to represent the business voice, which is absolutely fundamental in meeting our climate change goals. At the moment, we're on course for 2.5 degrees of warming, which is way off where we need to be at two degrees or indeed our objective around 1.5.So look, what I'm wanting to see is countries coming forward with ambitious NDCs. The other thing that gives me hope is that the fundamental role that renewable energy is going to play in meeting our net-zero goals, the economics of that are compelling. Investment in renewables now is outstripping investment in fossil fuels. The transition is on, and that is now unstoppable.
Almeida
Trevor’s sentiments are echoed by another guest, Scott Tew, chief sustainability officer from Trane Technologies.Scott Tew
One of the great themes or the things that have come out of 2025, despite all the geopolitical issues, has been on the business side. Businesses, I think more than ever, are looking to take action.And we as a company have discovered that we no longer have to go in and make apologies for the right thing to do related to the environment, because we have found a way, through innovations, as well as just a way of being honest about what happens when you choose to have a system upgrade. It comes with all the other things. It comes with efficiency, thus lower emissions, but we're really focused on whatever makes most sense to the customer. We can talk about efficiency. We can talk about ROI. We believe that, as my CEO likes to say, green is green. And, from that, thinking that ROI sustainability works. We believe that sustainability can be an action word and that it can be part of what we do in the marketplace that helps us win.
Hanford
One of the most encouraging outcomes during and after COP has been the growing spirit of partnership, both across industries and between the private and public sectors. EY Vice Chair for Sustainability, Colm Devine, emphasizes that these collaborations, even among unlikely partners, are now driving significant innovation and progress.Devine
I had dozens of conversations with CEOs through 10 days on businesses. It was very consistent around “Don't blink, we've got to maintain momentum through the strategy.” And actually, what was really emerging a lot was the benefits and power of collaboration and partnerships. So collaborating with supply chain players, collaborating and partnering with competitors. Again, this became a real theme from a CEO or business perspective as to “There's a lot of answers buried.” There's supposed to be bravery of partnering and collaborating. And one very stark example that I remember, talking through, which was an air-conditioning organization partnering with a mobile phone company and a car manufacturer; all completely different, but seeking out answers around metals and materials. And they came up with the answer.Again, so really inspiring.
Almeida
Colm made a really good point about the roles of the CEO, not specifically CSOs only, in driving collaboration for sustainable transition. And this is what we have experienced both at the EY house, and the green zone and the blue zone, and the events where we have been. Maybe you could add your opinion and your views on that, Matthew?But what I have heard from the panels was: CEOs really understand the role of sustainability in the long-term business strategy. Sustainability no longer competes with capital as a standalone point-in-time project or initiative. It is, from what I've heard, part of the business strategy. It's part of the long-term resilience of the business. And it is now taken into account as part of the operations, of the systems, of the indicators that are collected, of the reports that are released. And this is fantastic to see for all of us that work with sustainability. This is where we would like to get in terms of seeing that business understands the role and the relevance of sustainability as part of the long-term commercial strategy. I've heard CEOs from the financial sectors talking about how they are incorporating sustainability-related considerations in the moment where they are assessing credit or when they are developing new lines and products to offer to the market. I've heard CEOs from mining companies talking about innovation. I've heard CEOs from retail talking about their investments in electric vehicles, for example. So again, this is part of the business. This is no longer a point-in-time project.
Would you agree, Matt?
Hanford
Absolutely. And I think, just something that really resonates both with what Colm said and what you said is this need for collaboration. It's clear that no one company is going to be able to solve the climate challenge in a vacuum. And so sector-level collaboration, geocollaboration, regional collaboration, all of these are really important elements. And we saw that spirit of collaboration during the conference itself and in some of the discussions held outside of the conference.Some of the things perhaps to highlight or that I heard in terms of near-term considerations: We should expect that pressure will continue to increase on corporations to demonstrate alignment with strengths and NDCs. I think, as these NDCs become clearer and they are anchored in nation state strategies and ambition around growth paths, I expect that corporates will be asked to play a critical role in that transition and that pressure will go alongside that. I think we can expect that adaptation finance growth will signal opportunities and resilience infrastructure, nature-based solutions and climate tech deployment. And that is really going to be an advantage to companies that lean into those spaces or play a role in those value chains.
And then I think we can also anticipate regulatory and investor scrutiny on implementation credibility. We've heard these concepts of greenwashing. We've now heard the concept greenhushing. We know that this COP itself was about moving from ambition to implementation to action. And I think corporates need to adopt that sentiment as well.
Some of the focus areas that come to mind, Elanne, for me ahead of COP31 next year is clarity on adaptation and finance, contributions and governance, and the role that the private sector can play. Negotiations of stronger mitigation targets and formalizing transition language and getting consensus on transition pathways to the extent that that is possible, of course. And then importantly, I think, really to stimulate capital flows as framework consolidation around carbon markets and just transition mechanisms. I think these are all really important areas that companies can continue to lean into. And this is a good segue. Here’s Colm sharing what he thinks that business leaders need to do within the next 12 months to not lag.
Devine
One of those things that I talked a lot about in Sao Paulo, actually, was the need for clearing houses. And what I mean by clearing house is when businesses that need to enable really significant but difficult long-term change, when they can come together with governments and regulators who have the ability to break rules or indeed make rules, and also to come together with those who can fund and finance these programs, in my experience, that's what causes profound change. And this concept of a clearing house, which businesses and, in fact, organizations can take part in. Private sector needs to make noise about what do we need to actually, what are the changes we need to actually be able to facilitate what I often describe as well as regulatory oxygen. And people ask me, what does that mean? I say, well, there's a lot of regulations around reporting standards, etc. But we've got to turn that into, particularly from an investor lens, how do we use this to drive change and use it as an oxygen so that it can translate for organizations into a bottom-line impact. And the more we can do that, back to this clearing house, the more you can demonstrate, put oxygen into the system, find ways to make things happen, find ways to access this funding, technology, talent and data capital, or AI capital. It becomes a momentum flywheel as well.Almeida
Hearing Colm talking about collaboration reminded me of a word, a Brazilian word that was used a lot during COP. The word is multirão and that means a lot of people working together to achieve a common objective. So that's what we saw during this COP. And I hope that we keep seeing it a lot until we get to COP31: countries working together to achieve this huge objective, which is to reduce emissions. Another interesting fact about this COP was, yes, this was being called the COP of action, the COP of implementation. The Brazilian president mentioned this is the COP of the truth, and the reality of Belem, I think, resonates with that statement. And in terms of what business should be looking at and looking forward over the next year or so: I would say not only reducing emissions and a fair transition, which is what we are all aiming for, but two topics were really discussed a lot during the panels I attended.One was blended finance, financing mechanisms, including carbon markets and biodiversity: the need to protect, to regenerate, to consider biodiversity as the next big thing, not only because of the business impacts on biodiversity, but also because climate change is changing biodiversity significantly, and business will be called to contribute with that as well. So those were my final thoughts, Matt.