What the 2026 ‘triple COP’ year means for business

Economies and societies are navigating an increasingly complex global landscape shaped by geopolitical fragmentation, fiscal constraints, cost-of-living increases and supply-chain disruptions. At the same time, climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation are negatively impacting food supply, water availability, infrastructure, healthcare costs and labour productivity in concurrent and compounding ways. In turn, this is weakening economic growth, public finances and development outcomes.

For businesses, these impacts are material: assets are exposed, input and insurance costs are rising and heatwaves are hindering worker wellbeing and productivity. This is flowing through to profitability and growth prospects. These interconnected challenges are even harder for vulnerable groups to manage, and thus they are widening inequalities and increasing the risks of instability within and between nations. All while a powerful El Niño is coming.

To put some numbers to these costs, land degradation, desertification and drought costs the global economy an estimated $878 billion annually, with drought-related losses set to rise by up to 7.5% per year. Climate-related disasters have caused $3.6 trillion of damage this century and $577 billion in annual crop production is at risk from pollinator loss. Up to half of the world’s rangelands are degraded, putting one-sixth of global food supply and a massive carbon reservoir at risk.

In the face of the growing global trend of geopolitical fragmentation, climate shocks, biodiversity loss and land degradation, more global cooperation is required, not less. Countries, companies and communities will be able to manage these threats far more effectively together than alone. And for this reason, UN-convened cooperation is standing firm and delivering real progress.

The Rio Conventions on climate change, biodiversity and desertification were established more than three decades ago and remain the central global frameworks for cooperation on the natural systems that underpin global prosperity. Every second year, the processes align so that each Convention holds its Conference of the Parties (COP) in the same year, in what is dubbed a “triple COP” year.

The 2026 triple COP year began with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) COP17 in Mongolia in August, followed by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP17 in Armenia in October, and concluding with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP31 in Türkiye in November.

This bi-annual alignment is an opportunity to harness the synergies between these three intertwined mandates.

This year, the incoming Rio Convention Presidencies place synergies explicitly among their priority themes, both within the respective multilateral process and as part of their engagements with non-parties including local governments, companies, investors, think-tanks, philanthropies and civil society. Because while governments are the formal parties to the Rio Conventions – negotiating commitments and creating frameworks – the delivery and implementation of COP outcomes occurs in all sectors of society, including businesses, investors and innovators.

All three of this year's COPs have dedicated official businesses forums – the UNCCD COP17 Business4Land Forum (24 August), the CBD COP17 Business Forum (25 October) and the UNFCCC COP31 Business & Investment Summit (12-13 November) – as well as business engagement goals that are woven into their thematic priorities.

This year, in particular, there is an opportunity and a need to expand and deepen public coordination with the private sector in key areas such as policy signals, investment pathways and market incentives.

Businesses are co-architects of these transitions, scaling technologies, mobilizing capital, adapting supply chains, creating jobs and skills, and delivering essential products and services. To wit, the global green economy has passed $5 trillion annually and is on track to exceed $7 trillion by 2030, and green revenues are growing twice as fast as conventional revenues.

Companies that generate most of their revenue from green markets command valuation premiums and are leveraging solutions that address nature and climate in an integrated manner. Examples include:

However, investments against nature still outstrip nature-positive investments by 30:1. In 2023, the private sector was directing $4.9 trillion toward nature-negative activity, but only $23 billion toward nature-based solutions.

This triple COP year provides crucial opportunities to turn the tide.

The direction of travel is becoming clearer. Countries are embedding environmental considerations into industrial strategies and regulatory frameworks. Innovative mechanisms such as the Cali Fund and Drought Resilience Investment Facility are ushering in a new era of climate, biodiversity and drought resilience finance. Whole-of-economy approaches are mainstreaming climate, biodiversity and land issues across all facets of policymaking.

The recent recognition by G7 leaders of drought and land degradation as peace and security risk multipliers reflects a growing understanding that environmental decline is shaping economic stability, markets and businesses’ operating environment.

Accordingly, effective governments are no longer treating climate, land and biodiversity action in isolation, but are addressing it across a range of cabinet portfolios including energy, health, infrastructure, employment and finance. They understand that people are feeling the costs of inaction in their daily lives. And they are hearing from business leaders about the vast opportunities in the ongoing global economic transitions to clean energy, circularity and valuation of natural capital.

However, governments need to hear from motivated business more consistently and more directly about the huge benefits on offer – and the huge costs that can and must be avoided. There are still many opportunities that are unseized or unactionable because of inconsistent policies, unclear investment signals and persistent gaps in awareness.

Similarly, as climate, biodiversity and land issues increasingly impact corporate performance, the most successful businesses treat them not as the sole responsibility of Chief Sustainability Officers, but as core business across every vertical, with performance indicators tied to remuneration and accountability. This is taking hold in leading firms and the case for more companies to adopt this practice is clear.

The 2026 triple COP year will provide businesses with opportunities to learn, engage, align efforts and become part of the global movement from ambition to action.

In Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, businesses can engage through Business4Land, a private-sector platform helping companies integrate land restoration, investment in healthy soils, and drought resilience into their operations and value chains, in support of restoring 1.5 billion hectares of degraded land by 2030. In Yerevan, Armenia, outcomes will aim to involve all actors, including businesses, to accelerate implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework towards its 2030 deadline for global targets and 2050 horizon for global goals, with a vision of a world living in harmony with nature. And in Antalya, Türkiye, the adaptation, finance and agriculture agenda that Parties will take forward offers another moment to translate ambition into practice.

In an era of division and disruption, action on climate, nature and land can become a shared agenda for resilience, competitiveness and prosperity – if governments and businesses use 2026 not only to negotiate commitments, but to co-create the markets, policy frameworks, institutions and partnerships needed to deliver them.