The COP31 Business Forum is the structured platform that gives the global business community a single, coherent channel into the COP31 process. The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB) has been designated by the COP31 Presidency as the COP31 Private Sector Envoy to convene and coordinate this engagement across the full COP31 cycle.
National pledges and finance commitments now have to be converted, year by year, into industrial decisions, project pipelines and supply-chain change. That conversion happens inside firms, yet the private sector's link to the COP process has stayed informal and episodic.
The COP31 Business Forum is built to change that. Inclusive by intent, it is open to the full breadth of the business community, SMEs and the Global South included, so that their priorities are carried through into its outputs, and it is designed to last well beyond a single cycle.
Shifting trade policy, reordered energy-security priorities and divergent positions on industrial subsidies are recalibrating NDCs and net-zero pathways. Negotiators work in a harder political environment.
Capital cycles in heavy industry, power, transport and food run on multi-decade horizons. The firms, chambers and financiers behind them can act as a stabilising constituency that keeps long-term transition signals coherent.
Türkiye's 2015 G20 Business 20 in Antalya is regarded as one of the most effective business-government dialogues in G20 history. Its logic, an inclusive architecture co-located with the Leaders' Summit, is applied here to the UNFCCC process.
The Advisory Council provides strategic input to the Forum and reviews its outputs. It brings together the heads of leading global business organisations and international institutions, together with the High-Level Champions of the COP30 and COP31 Presidencies.
Each group develops policy recommendations on key climate topics, supports select private-sector initiatives and showcases best practice. The groups are steered by co-chairs drawn from different regions, reflecting a plurality of voices.
Each milestone broadens participation and sharpens substance, so that by the time the cycle reaches Antalya the private sector arrives with a consolidated, credible agenda rather than isolated pledges.
The Forum's international launch, held as a high-level roundtable of senior leaders from industry and finance. The Business Forum's working groups were introduced to the business community and the press.
Phase 1During New York Climate Week, the Forum convened a plenary session and a high-level roundtable, alongside dedicated roundtables for each working group. A substantial part of the working groups' preparation ahead of Antalya was completed here.
Phase 2The flagship. Forum positions are formally transmitted to Parties, business leaders and government leaders engage directly, and the Forum is publicly established as a continuing institutional channel.
Phase 3 · The SummitThe Forum continues as a delivery platform: tracking implementation of Summit commitments and preparing a structured handover to the incoming Presidency, so the COP Business Forum becomes a durable institution.
Phase 4Two days where positions become commitments — set to be the largest private-sector event ever held in a Blue Zone. One Summit day overlaps the Leaders' Summit, a first at any COP: Forum positions are transmitted to Parties, and business and government leaders engage directly.
A partner lounge in the Blue Zone, right next to the negotiations.
Two event rooms plus desk, pod and stand spaces — open to every visitor.
Two questions run through every conversation: where do you see the greatest opportunities for business-led climate action and collaboration, and what does it take your organisation to engage in the COP31 process? We welcome your perspective.