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![\"Delegates](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/COP30_7130f4.jpg\")
\t\tMany bosses chose to give COP30 in Brazil’s Belem a miss (Photo by Wagner Meie)\t<\/p>\n
COP 26 in Glasgow represented a high-water mark for companies flouting their ambitious transition plans and lofty climate credentials. This year\u2019s summit could not be more different, writes Ali Lyon.<\/p>\n
Reclining on stage at the 26th COP summit<\/a> in his native Glasgow, Alan Jope was at home both literally and spiritually.<\/p>\n The Unilever chief executive had spent three years establishing himself as one of the corporate world\u2019s most passionate climate and diversity advocates, vowing to accelerate predecessor Paul Polman\u2019s environmental, social and governance leadership. And with his company a principal partner at the biggest climate summit in history, the Scotsman\u2019s efforts had reached their natural apogee.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think there are three existential challenges in the world: climate change, the loss and destruction of nature, and growing inequality,\u201d he told a Bloomberg Green event<\/a>. \u201cNone of these issues are good for our business\u2026 so I\u2019ve been delighted to see the representation of business here in Glasgow.\u201d<\/p>\n Corporate presence was \u2013 as the \u2018Uni-lifer\u2019 observed \u2013 hard to miss at the environmental jamboree of the year; one which the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson had billed as the \u201cworld\u2019s moment of truth\u201d. Outside the main hangar, pharma giant GSK had installed an inflatable air purifier<\/a>. Utilities giant SSE had commissioned an entire Imax screening event \u2013 called Hydro<\/a> \u2013 devoted to hydroelectric power. And in the world of haute couture, Stella McCartney\u2019s Future of Fashion exhibition<\/a> showcased her label\u2019s efforts to leverage \u201cthe limitless possibilities of material innovation\u201d.<\/p>\n \t\tWhere have all the suits gone?<\/p>\n Four years on, with the 30th iteration of the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) in Brazil now in its second week, the agenda items<\/a> that range from youth-led climate forums and fraught political negotiations look similar to those at Scotland\u2019s edition in 2021. Environment ministers, official delegations and third-sector titans are, as they were in Glasgow, also out in force. What is missing, however, are the clean-cut executives and no-cost-spared marketing stunts from the blue-chip firms \u2013 and their consultants \u2013 that viewed the 2021 summit as the consummate platform for burnishing their green credentials.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore, if you weren\u2019t doing something around COP, then questions would be asked,\u201d said one senior corporate affairs executive. \u201cNow it\u2019s totally different.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy clients have definitely sent fewer people to this year\u2019s summit,\u201d added a director at a UK-based PR agency. \u201cExpense is a massive reason, but so is the political environment.\u201d<\/p>\n Organised under the auspices of the United Nations, COP has, for decades, been the world\u2019s best-attended, and most consequential environmental gathering. Since its establishment at a 1992 treaty signed in Rio de Janeiro, an assortment of presidents, prime ministers, chief executives and campaigners have descended on a different city each year to agree how best to limit the effects and extent of what\u2019s become known as the climate crisis.<\/p>\n Over three decades it became a temple to the political consensus which held that the changing climate posed an existential threat to humanity, and that the world \u2013 largely via a series of agreements at COP \u2013 needed to do everything it could to stop it. Heads of state would use the jamboree as a platform to commit their nations to ambitious transition targets<\/a>. Campaigners would make hay from the eyes of the world\u2019s science and environmental media being trained on one place at the same time. And executives would trumpet the painstaking but important lengths to which their companies were going to reduce their own contribution to the crisis at hand.<\/p>\n But as the world exited from the pandemic and entered the energy price shock of 2022, that consensus was punctured. Aided by the outbreak of a hot war in Europe \u2013 and an aggressive rate-hiking cycle from the western world\u2019s central banks \u2013 lawmakers\u2019 priorities evolved from energy sustainability to energy security.<\/p>\n Drill, baby, drill<\/p>\n Initially, that shift happened quietly \u2013 and even sheepisly. Or at least it did until, last year, the man vying to be the 47th President of the United States turned climate into one of the most salient topics of the primary and presidential campaigns.<\/p>\n Efforts to boost green energy were, Donald Trump said during the primaries, a \u201cscam\u201d. Instead the US needed to \u201cdrill, baby, drill\u201d if it wanted to improve living standards, maintain its position as the world\u2019s largest natural gas exporter and keep energy prices down.<\/p>\n Since taking office in January, the president as followed through on his unstinting rhetoric. He quickly sought to block all offshore wind projects \u2013 even those that were very close to completion \u2013 and launched a legislative tirade against companies that set ESG targets and strategies.<\/p>\n According to Charlie Tarr, chief executive of corporate affairs consultancy Woodrow, the direction in which Trump has taken his second term is the primary reason for firms\u2019 low-key turnout this year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe glossy pavilions, the huge delegations, the climate grandstanding that we\u2019ve seen in previous years is just over,\u201d he says. \u201cNow, we\u2019ve got caution, we\u2019ve got minimalism, we\u2019ve got private conversations. US politics has weaponised climate as a culture war issue. That has fundamentally changed the calculus for corporate visibility.\u201d<\/p>\n Where once firms would once dispatch six or seven senior staff, this year they are sending two, Tarr adds. And where chief executives used to block their calendar months in advance to be seen on a panel with a former presidential candidate<\/a> or feted naturalist, now they are more likely to delegate that job to their senior sustainability officer.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n \t\t\tCOP 30 is a chance for Britain to lead the world in transition finance<\/a><\/p>\n One senior PR executive, who worked with several blue-chip firms in the run-up to Glasgow\u2019s COP, said the judgement call Western firms made in 2021 was, if your business wasn\u2019t doing something big around it, consumers and shareholders would demand to know why.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had entire COP strategies that fleshed out how we were going to engage with stakeholders, working out the business opportunities on the ground, etc,\u201d she said. \u201cAssociation with it was almost universally positive.\u201d<\/p>\n Another PR agency director added: \u201cIt has dropped off the agenda of, for example, the big asset managers, and big banks who will have occasionally dipped their toe into COPs in the past.\u201d <\/p>\n Logistical and political difficulties<\/p>\n But according to some, the lack of corporate representation is not just down to the fresh political scrutiny emanating from the White House. <\/p>\n Michael Hartt, who leads international affairs at Fleishmanhillard and is advising several firms on their COP 30 communications strategies, said the logistical issues around this year\u2019s summit, which is being held in the heart of the Amazon, are just as important as politics.<\/p>\n \u201cA mix of practical factors\u2026. and wider forces, including political pressure in some countries\u2026 means some companies have adjusted their presence,\u201d he told City AM.<\/p>\n And according to others, a patchy track record, and several missteps including controversial locations, meant firms were beginning to lose faith in the value the summit brings to the climate debate, and its track record for delivery amid a testing macroeconomic backdrop.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that we\u2019re seeing [clients] row back on COP engagement,\u201d said Imogen Sackey, senior associate director at the Romans. \u201cBut I think it reflects a bigger question about COP\u2019s role in global climate leadership.<\/p>\n \u201c[It] feels increasingly abstract\u2026 and we\u2019re seeing businesses afraid to break the binary between \u2018good for business\u2019 and \u2018good for the planet,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n That binary trade-off may \u2013 as Sackey claims \u2013 be myopic, but it is a core component of executives\u2019 decision-making. As the era of cheap money that characterised the post-financial crisis global economy shuddered to a halt in 2022, corporates across the world tighten their belts. <\/p>\n Shareholder primacy returned to the ascendancy. And shareholders, for their part, relearned the importance of a robust bottom line. All of which meant blue-chip firms, many of whom had recruited rapidly over the pandemic, felt forced to cut back on staff levels, employee benefits and marketing spend to sate increasingly scrupulous investors.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking at large-cap companies \u2013 and including\u00a0 S&P500 businesses \u2013 they are just scaling back,\u201d said Woodrow\u2019s Tarr. \u201cThey\u2019re wary of optics on cost-grounds because some have been been laying people off.\u201d<\/p>\n One company keeping a markedly lower profile at this year\u2019s instalment \u2013 and which has, itself, been engaged in a major cost-cutting drive \u2013 is Alan Jope\u2019s erstwhile employer, Unilever. <\/p>\n The consumer giant has \u2013 like many in its category \u2013 been on a striking financial and rhetorical journey since the Glaswegian stepped down at the end of 2023. After years of underperformance, Jope\u2019s replacement, Hein Schumacher, scaled back the firm\u2019s ambitious climate targets<\/a> just four months into the job, saying the group needed \u201cto be more focused in its allocation of resources\u201d.<\/p>\n His successor, Fernando Fernandez, has doubled down on that direction. In his first set of public remarks in September, the new chief executive conceded that Unilever had \u201clost its focus on volume growth\u201d, blasting the \u201cmany pockets of mediocrity<\/a>\u201d that existed in the company\u2019s ranks.<\/p>\n Despite having led the firm\u2019s Brazilian division for nearly 10 years, Fernandez will not be showing his face at COP 30. Instead, his focus for the firm was made abundantly clear in a Linkedin post published just a fortnight before COP got underway.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know what we need to do to make Unilever a marketing and sales machine, and we are doing it at speed,\u201d he wrote in late October. \u201cLet\u2019s go!\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n![\"Jope](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Jope.jpg\")
Alan Jope, chief executive officer of Unilever Plc (Photo by: Stefan Wermuth\/Bloomberg via Getty Images)What is COP30?<\/p>\n![\"GettyImages](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2244802040.jpg\")
Prince William, Prince of Wales and Britain\u2019s Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrive at the Julio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport (Val-de-Cans), ahead of the COP30 (Photo by Ben Stansall \u2013 WPA Pool\/Getty Images)Political climate keeps firms away from COP<\/p>\n![\"Due](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2246833487.jpg\")
Demonstrators attend a protest as Glasgow takes part in Global Day Of Climate Action this year in Glasgow, Scotland. Scotland\u2019s Climate March was part of a day of coordinated global action taking place during the UN climate talks at COP30 in Brazil. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell\/Getty Images)Firms finding COP outlay harder to justify<\/p>\n