The 2026 ‘triple COP’ year presents businesses with a major opportunity to strengthen resilience, unlock green investment and accelerate action on climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation, according to senior UN offi cials.
The three UN environmental conferences – the UN Convention to Combat Desertifi cation (UNCCD) COP17 in Mongolia in August, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP17 in Armenia in October and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP31 in Trkiye in November – will bring together governments, businesses, investors and civil society to advance coordinated action.
UN offi cials Yasmine Fouad, Astrid Schomaker and Simon Stiell said climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation are increasingly affecting businesses through damaged assets, rising input and insurance costs, supply-chain disruptions and declining worker productivity.
Land degradation, desertifi cation and drought are estimated to cost the global economy $878 billion annually, while climate-related disasters have caused about $3.6 trillion in damage this century.
Pollinator loss also puts around $577 billion in annual crop production at risk.
The offi cials said businesses have a critical role in addressing these challenges by scaling clean technologies, mobilizing capital, strengthening supply chains and creating jobs.
The global green economy already exceeds $5 trillion annually and could surpass $7 trillion by 2030, with green revenues growing faster than conventional revenues.
Potential growth areas include agroforestry, battery recycling, industrial water management, naturebased solutions, sustainable rangeland management, drought-resilient agriculture and carbon markets.
However, investment in naturepositive activities remains far below investment in nature-negative activities.
In 2023, private-sector fi nancing for nature-negative activities was estimated at $4.9 trillion, compared with only $23 billion for nature-based solutions.
The UN offi cials urged governments to provide clearer policies, stronger investment signals and market incentives, while encouraging companies to make climate, biodiversity and land issues a core business priority rather than leaving them solely to sustainability departments.