“Whoever starts first is in a favorable position”: Dan Ioschpe on why climate action is the best competitive advantage

Leaders from businesses, cities, and civil society will meet at Climate Week NYC next week amid record-breaking heatwaves, an energy crisis, and climate disasters threatening millions of people worldwide.

The energy transition, along with how to drive positive economic impact and accelerate climate action, will be front and centre in the discussions in New York.

We spoke with Dan Ioschpe, COP30 Climate High-Level Champion, about the main trends shaping climate action across business, transport, energy, cities, and more. He is clear about what attracts businesses and investors to climate action: “When solutions are available, in supply, and competitively priced, adoption is full, and we can implement solutions faster. An unsustainable path doesn't attract anyone.”

In his words, the Global Climate Action Agenda is, at the end of the day, about how to promote and sustain socioeconomic development.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You stepped in as Climate High-Level Champion for COP30 in 2025 with a background in the industrial sector. How has your experience helped scale up climate action?

My experience working with diverse companies has shown me that we can adapt under pressure and innovate at scale. I think this background helped with the question of how to organize the Global Climate Action Agenda, how to work together, how to bring focus and follow through on issues on a daily basis. That was my main attempted contribution to this revitalized structure – six axes and key objectives mapped to the gaps identified by the Global Stocktake – that emerged at COP30 in Belém.

The Action Agenda’s mid-year snapshot on climate progress just came out. Can you list a few specific examples of progress that are particularly exciting to you?

The six axes, the 120 Plans to Accelerate Solutions, nearly 500 initiatives – they're all important and need to be scaled up. But, obviously, some of the solutions are in the process of being implemented and others will require more time. For example, in the energy sector, given how cross-cutting it is, is a clear avenue for progress. There is a USD 1 trillion pipeline of investment by 2030, announced at COP30 by Utilities for Net Zero (UNEZA).

In land transport the progress is visible with the Global Green Road Corridor Initiative, which is one of the largest private-sector collaborations to decarbonize goods transport. There are two zero emissions corridors advancing this year: a 1,200 kilometer route linking Bogotá, Barranquilla and Cartagena and a truck corridor along Interstate 5 from British Columbia to Baja California – alongside progress on Brazil's 800 kilometer e-Dutra zero emissions freight corridor.

In maritime transport, the sector increased its zero-emission fuel targets from five to ten percent by 2030. In air transport, we're starting to see an acceleration with investments reaching USD 1.5 billion for commercial Sustainable Aviation Fuels in Bahia, Brazil.

When we talk about the financing pillar, we have the Tropical Forest Forever Facility with USD 6.8 billion already committed. It's a step, and that's why continuity matters.

What I like to see most is the overall work and a unified vision of continuity. This is the most important thing to me.

Renewable energy is becoming abundant and costs are falling fast. How do we ensure our energy systems keep pace?

We've had a very fast expansion of sustainable, renewable energy, especially solar and wind. But that brought a lesson: the way this energy is generated isn't necessarily under the control of national grid operators. The integration of this energy into the grids happens in a much more distributed way, on rooftops of homes and buildings, or large wind farms that aren't necessarily connected to the grid.

That generates the need to improve the grids and storage to avoid curtailment – where you end up reducing the amount of energy entering a given system and losing some of the economic viability of the process.

It makes complete sense from a socioeconomic and competitive standpoint to bring in this other factor that wasn't as considered years ago, because no one imagined such a large share of wind and solar energy.

Solar energy is a mature example and it's no longer a debate about whether it represents a cost or an obstacle to something. Quite the opposite, it has become a solution for continued growth and for competitiveness.

Is technology the best way to expand access to renewable energy?

Every time we scale technological solutions with speed, we generate more competitiveness, which allows these agendas to accelerate. That's what we need more and more of.

One example is Sustainable Aviation Fuel. We've made a lot of progress on the technology side, on knowing what to do. Now we need to turn a costly solution into an extremely competitive one. How will we do that? With a lot of scale and by generating supply sources well distributed around the world, in coordination with raw materials and technologies.

Under the Action Agenda's aviation plan, the practical work is to support the achievement of offtake agreements connecting supply and demand, with economics that allow this capacity build up with speed and scale, and to widen the range of raw materials. That is starting to show — there are now 140 SAF projects across 31 countries.

It's the global process of adjusting to circumstances. The growth in energy demand is also exceeding all expectations because of digitalization, artificial intelligence, and this brings an even more significant demand for energy.

How are cities adapting to climate shocks and becoming more resilient?

We have seen a lot of progress in cities, particularly on adaptation and resilience. For example, the C40 Water Safe Cities Accelerator is helping to improve water security and implement early warning systems and emergency response to floods in cities like São Paulo and Rio, as well as Los Angeles, Freetown, Tokyo and beyond.

Also, the “Greening Cities to Beat the Heat” plan has grown to 230 cities and 100 partners since COP30, while the 50@50 campaign is helping cities including Antalya, Lagos, Melbourne, Mendoza, Paris and Yangzhou amplify solutions such as cooling centres, greener public spaces, and early warning systems.

The world is experiencing various climate shocks — El Niño, fossil fuel volatility, price swings. How can companies become more competitive in this scenario?

Companies seek the growth of an aggregate market, and the growth of their own share within that market. Nine out of 10 business leaders see sustainability as a competitive advantage and USD 43 billion in clean industrial projects hit final investment decisions in 2026 alone – more than doubling last year's pace.

Risk is something undesired at a certain scale. So whether it's a mayor or the head of a company, they need to be prepared in case a climate change event occurs. To reduce the risk, you have to take containment, resilience, and adaptation measures – whether for your physical assets, your employees, your financial resources, or your relationships with clients and suppliers.

I'm very pragmatic. When solutions are available, in supply, and competitively priced, adoption is full, and we can implement solutions faster. An unsustainable path doesn't attract anyone.

The Global Climate Action Agenda is, at the end of the day, about how to promote and sustain socioeconomic development. If we don't implement sustainable solutions, it's more likely we'll see a setback in development than if we do implement them.

Whoever starts first, whoever prepares, whoever has the infrastructure, whoever already has practice using a solution before others, is in a favorable position. And that's what we see in companies and organized groups – seeking to stay very close to these agendas, to influence, to accelerate, and to be part of the solutions.

Are there any climate events since you started as Champion that have made climate action feel more personal to you?

In 2024, my hometown of Porto Alegre, Brazil was devastated by a large flood. People lost their homes, their jobs, and the whole economy was impacted. Two years later, the city is still facing severe floods, but adaptation measures are being taken by businesses and the government to help the experience be less devastating than it was two years ago.

Owners of operating units near a likely flood zone are taking measures to reduce the impact, either by relocating the sites or by preparing them with equipment and systems to prevent damage.

Climate disasters like these are shaping companies' decision-making. On a risk matrix, today you have higher frequency and higher relevance, so everyone is paying attention to this issue.

What does the future look like for the Global Climate Action Agenda?

The future doesn't stop, but I think everything points to continuity and an amplification of the Global Climate Action Agenda. I'm very optimistic. I'd like to see more than 120 Plans to Accelerate Solutions underway. These plans are a core part of the Action Agenda and they tackle the practical levers that determine whether solutions move or stall – including policy and regulation, market supply and demand, access to finance, technical capacity, and skills.

I want to see expansion of these acceleration plans, but at the same time also bringing new actors to the table, and more depth within each of them. I don't see any reason why that shouldn't happen. I also encourage cities, businesses, investors and civil society to register their initiatives at the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (NAZCA) platform to showcase action and capture the progress.