How COP30 Can Turn Climate Ambition Into Real, System-Wide Action

A decade after the Paris Agreement, the global trajectory has unmistakably shifted. Paris was a diplomatic breakthrough that reshaped markets, set new expectations, and accelerated the shift toward clean energy. It mobilized investors, businesses, and civil-society organizations around a shared direction of travel. But changing direction is only the first step; the challenge now is delivering results at scale. The coming decade must be about turning intention into implementation.

As COP30 convenes in Belém, global attention rightly centers on the Amazon and the broader bioeconomy. Protecting and restoring forests remains one of the most effective and affordable ways to curb short-term warming. Yet safeguarding the Amazon requires more than political commitments. It demands market systems that make forest outcomes verifiable, investable, and rewarding—while ensuring that Indigenous peoples and local communities are at the heart of the transition.

The progress made since Paris is real and visible. Renewable-energy deployment and electrification have expanded at unprecedented pace. Solar and wind additions have repeatedly broken records, electric-vehicle adoption is accelerating a shift away from oil, and annual clean-energy investment has leapt from billions to trillions. These advances have slowed emissions growth and confirmed that the right policy signals can trigger rapid technological change. Still, these achievements fall short of the deep, economy-wide transformation required to keep the 1.5°C goal within reach.

The gap remains significant. UNEP’s Emissions Gap reports make this plain: current policies and voluntary commitments are far from sufficient, and staying aligned with 1.5°C requires far deeper cuts by 2030 than are currently planned. We possess the essential components—technology, finance, and policy tools—but lack a unified delivery model capable of scaling them globally and rapidly.

This is where business and technology must step up. Turning climate ambition into measurable outcomes is fundamentally a data and systems challenge. Carbon figures trapped in isolated spreadsheets, decarbonization plans that never influence purchasing decisions, and year-end compliance rushes all represent structural weaknesses. The solution is not merely better dashboards; it is embedding carbon data into the financial and operational systems that guide everyday decisions—treating emissions as auditable, financially material information that shapes procurement, product design, and capital allocation in real time.

Regulation is accelerating this shift. The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) now requires companies to verify that commodities such as soy, beef, coffee, and timber are fully traceable and not linked to deforestation. Beyond compliance, this marks a broader transition: supply chains must now demonstrate environmental integrity, not just operational efficiency. SAP’s sustainability tools enable organizations to integrate environmental data, automate due diligence, and maintain transparent custody across complex supply networks, helping turn regulatory pressure into competitive advantage.

Two SAP customer examples show this transformation in action. In the Brazilian Amazon, Fundação Amazônia Sustentável (FAS) uses SAP Sustainability Control Tower to unify ESG information from field projects and community programs. Faster, audit-ready data strengthens confidence in landscape-level finance and helps align conservation incentives with tangible local benefits.

Facchini—a leading manufacturer of transport equipment—illustrates the industrial perspective. By modernizing its ERP environment and embedding sustainability data into day-to-day operations, the company is using efficiency improvements, material circularity, and energy choices to boost resilience and protect margins. These operational changes are the ones that can genuinely bend emissions curves.

Financial trends add further reason for cautious optimism. Developed countries surpassed the long-promised US$100 billion in annual climate finance in 2022, and carbon pricing now applies to a growing share of worldwide emissions. These evolving market signals adjust business incentives and open new opportunities for companies that embed sustainability directly into strategic and financial decision-making.

What does this mean for business leaders preparing for the years ahead?

The Paris Agreement provided the map, and the last decade proved that coordinated action can shift markets and technologies faster than expected. COP30 must now turn directional progress into durable, system-level implementation: raising 2030 ambition, targeting finance where it reduces risk most effectively, and strengthening the market infrastructure needed to measure and manage emissions and nature impacts across value chains.

For those of us designing enterprise systems, this means equipping organizations to run their businesses with sustainability embedded in the core—not as a separate report, but as the operating model, the processes, and the incentives that turn environmental commitments into concrete outcomes.