Dutch business and government prepare for COP31 together

On 30 September, ICC Netherlands convened a meeting in preparation for COP31 in Antalya ( 9–20 November) and the biodiversity COP. Around thirty participants from industry, construction, shipbuilding, technology, banking, insurance and development finance met with Climate Envoy Jan Versteeg and with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate. The meeting was held at the invitation of Christiene Everaars, Chair of the ICC Netherlands Sustainability Commission, at Siemens Nederland, and was organised in cooperation with VNO-NCW and UN Global Compact Netherlands.

Electrification as the main theme

The Climate Envoy set out what COP31 will be about. It will be an implementation COP: the centre of gravity is the action agenda and putting into practice what has already been agreed, rather than setting new targets.

The one genuinely new main theme is electrification. The presidency is preparing a political declaration by willing countries, with the aim of raising the share of final energy demand met by electricity from just over twenty per cent today to 35 per cent by 2035. The declaration points in a direction rather than imposing a legal obligation. The Netherlands supports the objective, with one qualification: it should also be clean electrification. As it stands, the declaration sets no requirement as to where the electricity comes from.

Also discussed: the process on transitioning away from fossil fuels, which continues over the coming year under the leadership of Tuvalu and Ireland; the Tropical Forest Forever Facility; the IPCC's timetable; decision-making on shipping within the IMO; and adaptation, where the Netherlands has something to offer in mobilising private capital and in water expertise.

Two thematic tables

Participants then worked through the practical questions at two thematic tables.

At the table on electrification, the recurring theme was that the technology exists and the obstacle lies elsewhere. Generation in Europe is not growing at the pace of demand, companies queue for grid capacity, and the business case on the demand side does not yet add up. Time compounds all of it: an industrial oven lasts at least twenty years, a vessel thirty, and permitting a wind farm takes close to a decade. A target set for 2035 has to work with that rhythm.

At the table on climate finance, facilitated by Floske Kusse (ING) and Luke Disney (Rabobank), one message stood out: climate finance is not only about mobilising more money, but about the conditions and structures that allow existing public and private capital to finance the transition. Involve financiers from the design stage of a project. Use scarce public money to de-risk what the market cannot carry alone. And give investors clear, stable transition pathways.

The ICC business voice into COP31

The ICC business voice into COP31 is being built on substantive files. The ICC Technical Expert Panel on Carbon Accounting published its Mission Statement and Landscape Review in August, and ICC Secretary-General John Denton's September remarks at UNGA set out the practical conditions ICC is asking Antalya to deliver on: stable policy frameworks, open markets, interoperable standards and greater access to finance.

Next steps

ICC Netherlands is consolidating the outcomes of both tables into input for the two ministries and will take them to Antalya. ICC is an accredited observer at the UN climate conferences and brings one of the largest business delegations each year; within that delegation ICC Netherlands holds a limited number of Blue Zone passes.

Would you like to stay involved in the work of the Sustainability Commission? Please get in touch at info@icc.nl.