'The climate economy is delivering': CEO climate leaders publish open letter ahead of COP30

In recent years, corporate leaders across the world have made significant investments in building low-carbon, climate resilient businesses. Members of the Alliance are paving the way, proving that climate initiatives can drive long-term value for business and society. However, this momentum now faces strong headwinds.

The cost of the transition, combined with policy obstacles and uncertainties, fiscal pressures and geopolitical tensions, is slowing the transition. COP30 presents a pivotal moment for business and government to reignite progress towards a more resilient and environmentally sustainable economy.

The transition towards a resilient and low-carbon economy is a major commercial opportunity: Demand for green, low-carbon products, and electrification solutions is accelerating across sectors, with the global market for technologies like solar photovoltaic (PV), wind turbines, electric vehicles (EVs), batteries, electrolysers and heat pumps nearly quadrupling since 2015 to over $700 billion annually. Renewable power has delivered meaningful and competitive returns for many years, with its rapid expansion underscoring deep investor confidence.

In addition to the energy transition, low-carbon products in agriculture (e.g. regenerative agriculture) can increase farm profits compared to conventional farming, and circular economy models are unlocking new sources of value by boosting resource efficiency and cutting costs in many sectors. At the same time, many businesses have a clear case for investing in adaptation and resilience due to the rising costs of weather extremes.

This transformation supports broader societal and economic goals: By creating alternative sources of scalable, low-cost energy, the green transition can strengthen energy security and independence, enhance reliability and drive economic growth. It is also a powerful job creator, with the potential to generate a net gain of 10 million jobs globally by 2030. Air quality and public health stand to benefit significantly. Crucially, climate mitigation and resilience efforts help safeguard lives, and protect both nature and critical assets.

Current global policies are setting the world towards a 3°C trajectory, with warming expected to exceed 2°C as early as 2050 – potentially even more across major land areas. The consequences will intensify over the next 25 years, with increased droughts, heatwaves, wildfire and flood risks, and more severe storms. These impacts will disrupt food security, damage the financial resilience of businesses and governments, and endanger livelihoods, communities, healthcare systems and ecosystems.

Despite these immediate impacts, policies remain fragmented and uncertain, with varying levels of ambition and urgency. This makes it harder for businesses to invest at the speed and scale required to slow the rate of temperature increase. Reducing emissions is only one part of the climate challenge, as many impacts are already locked in, making investment in adaptation and resilience critical.

Policy-makers can drive growth and create wealth by accelerating the transition by:

1. Maintaining a stable and predictable policy environment: Long-term policies and regulations should be ambitious, stable and aligned with typical investment time horizons. This will give businesses the confidence to commit capital in emerging sectors, and plan for sustainable growth.

2. Mitigating the financial risk of private investments and projects: Businesses need large-scale capital to invest in the transition. Risk can be reduced through a range of instruments across debt, equity, concessional finance, blended capital and guarantees or mechanisms at project level (e.g. power purchase agreements or carbon contracts for difference).

3. Doubling financing and incentives for breakthrough tech: “Hard-to-abate” sectors such as those dependent on industrial heat need breakthrough technologies that require public support to scale, for example in the shape of R&D funding, investments in pilots, ambitious green public procurement policies, and transparent carbon markets and pricing mechanism to send clear demand signals.

4. Transitioning away from unabated fossil fuels: Develop clear plans for a just, orderly and equitable transition, redirecting subsidies and investments towards clean energy, electrification and resilience.

5. Removing transition obstacles: Lengthy permitting processes are a major barrier to scaling renewables, grid build-out, other key low-carbon infrastructure, and commercial projects driving decarbonization in operations. Streamlining planning and approvals could cut project timelines by up to 50% for wind and 75% for solar.

6. Supporting investments and policies for nature: Nature is an essential asset for economies and communities. Wetlands, forests and the ocean deliver important ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration and sinks, soil protection and water regulation.

7. Building climate-resilient economies and food systems: Submit detailed and investable National Adaptation Plans, deploy climate hazard warning systems to protect people and assets, develop financial tools to unlock private adaptation investments (e.g. loans for large infrastructure investments), and enhance the resilience of food systems by supporting the rapid rollout of locally-relevant regenerative and resilient agricultural practices across diverse systems.

8. Target and deliver Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction: Adopt science-based targets and report transparently on your progress. Develop a credible climate transition plan to guide your organization’s decarbonization journey.

9. Drive change in your industry: Address Scope 3 emissions by working together across the value chain to drive low-emission end products and business models. Partner with coalitions, like the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, to share best practices and support both suppliers’ and end-users’ decarbonization.

10. Leverage efficiency solutions to reduce energy usage, costs and emissions: Use energy audits to identify savings, upgrade heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, optimize processes, and consider alternative sources of energy that often have an attractive business case.

11. Strengthen innovation and digital solutions: Accelerate research and development of advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), while remaining mindful of their environmental impact.

12. Support creation of demand signals: Combine corporate goals where possible to increase demand for breakthrough technologies, for example by joining industry alliances like the First Movers Coalition, which supports hard-to-abate sectors’ decarbonization.

13. Invest in climate adaptation and resilience: Direct capital towards climate-proofing facilities, diversifying supply chains, and strengthening infrastructure to safeguard operations and communities against extreme-weather risks. Leverage advanced risk modelling and data tools to assess and enhance the visibility of physical impacts on key value chain assets.

Achieving this transformation will require deeper collaboration between the public and private sectors, anchored in trust, shared ambition and coordinated cross-regional action around policy, finance and innovation. This will unlock a historic commercial opportunity while supporting a fair transition, safeguarding people and planetary health. The moment is crucial, and the actions taken today will determine the speed and scale of the transformation.

This letter is endorsed by a majority of Alliance members; however, it may not reflect the views of all individual members.

To download the letter, click here.