Global business leaders are gathering in New York this week for the COP31 Business Forum’s New York Dialogue, where COP31 President-Designate Murat Kurum is set to present the COP31 Action Agenda to the international business community for the first time.
The dialogue will be held on Tuesday, September 22, at Bloomberg Headquarters and will be co-hosted by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB), the COP31 Private Sector Envoy, and Bloomberg. The event will also mark the opening of Bloomberg Green New York.
M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, President of TOBB and Chair of the COP31 Business Forum, and Michael R. Bloomberg, Founder of Bloomberg L.P. and UN Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions, will deliver opening remarks.
Murat Kurum, Türkiye’s Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change and COP31 President-Designate, will present the COP31 Action Agenda, which is scheduled to be launched at the United Nations on September 21.
A panel moderated by Bloomberg Television’s Francine Lacqua will discuss the private sector’s initial response to the agenda. Panelists include Ali Y. Koç, Vice Chairman of Koç Holding; Dr. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA); Makhtar Diop, Managing Director of the International Finance Corporation (IFC); and John W.H. Denton AO, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
More than 300 senior business executives are expected to attend the New York Dialogue.
The COP31 Business Forum’s New York programme will continue through September 25. Its Advisory Council of global business leaders is scheduled to hold its first meeting on September 23, while seven working groups, comprising more than 700 members, will meet throughout the week.
The working groups include senior representatives from major companies and international organizations, including Sabancı Holding, Octopus Energy, Schneider Electric, ACCIONA, GE Vernova, JSW Steel, Heidelberg Materials, Rönesans Holding, Meridiam, Honeywell, Yıldız Holding, WBCSD, BBVA, ICC, Arçelik, Just Climate, Emerald AI and KADIN Indonesia.
The groups will present their recommendations at the COP31 Business and Investment Summit in Antalya on November 12–13. Organizers say the summit will, for the first time in COP history, overlap with the Leaders’ Summit, allowing business recommendations to be presented directly to heads of state and government.
The COP31 Business and Investment Summit is expected to become the largest business event ever held in a COP Blue Zone, bringing the private sector’s climate and investment priorities into the formal discussions surrounding COP31.
