The Action Agenda in 2026: Still Running, Still Building

When the COP30 Presidency released its Executive Report in March 2026, it offered a detailed account of the progress announced at the last year’s UN Climate Conference (COP30) in Brazil including a big emphasis on the Global Climate Action Agenda – what it delivered and how it has been re-organized and strengthened for the next five years.

Hundreds of initiatives are delivering real-world results across every sector – from a USD 1 trillion coalition to triple renewable capacity, to 12 million farmers reached through investments in regenerative landscapes, and beyond. This is the updated Action Agenda, now re-energized and with updated themes to match the latest COP outcomes.

The key question is: what happens next? The short answer: the work continues, and it is moving faster than many people realize.

A Renewed Framework, Not a New Start

The Marrakech Partnership did not end at COP30. It was renewed through a five-year vision for accelerating climate implementation.

The Partnership, created in 2016 by the first two High Level Champions, gives non-State actors – businesses, cities, investors, civil society groups – an official and active role in the UNFCCC (COP) process. It is the tool used by the Climate High-Level Champions to coordinate the many climate initiatives working with these critical actors.

What changed at COP30 is how the climate initiatives under the Marrakech Partnership are organized. The nine thematic areas that organized the Partnership since 2016 have been updated to six thematic axes and 30 objectives. The leading initiatives working on these topics: energy and transport, forests and biodiversity, agriculture and food systems, cities and infrastructure, human and social development, and finance, technology and capacity-building are now organized into Activation Groups to work together on the solutions needed to achieve each objective This new structure is designed to tackle the gaps in climate progress identified by the Global Stocktake.

Most Marrakech Partnership members remain actively involved in the work, registering their initiatives on NAZCA, the UNFCCC's official platform for tracking non-State climate action and by participating in expert working groups (known as Activation Groups). And for stakeholders that do not fit neatly into the Activation Group structure, Communities of Action are being developed as a broader entry point to the renewed Marrakech Partnership

The Action Agenda in Motion

All 30 Activation Groups held their first meetings of the year in January. These groups – each convening existing initiatives across each Action Agenda axis – are the engine of the renewed structure. They will meet three more times by COP31. Their work this year includes contributing to the Deforestation Roadmap and the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels Roadmap, both launched by the COP30 Presidency in Belém, as well as the Baku to Belém Roadmap on climate finance.

Activation Groups are also helping to drive forward Plans to Accelerate Solutions – practical, time-bound delivery plans for climate action that tackle barriers like policy, market supply/demand, and finance. Currently, 120 plans are in progress covering sectors from buildings, and power grids, to health, nature-based solutions, water access, steel, and fertiliser – and beyond.

While the groups continue the day to day work of mobilizing actors to drive progress, they also help inform the first step of the annual implementation cycle: review. Insights from these groups serve to help the incoming Presidency and their Champions to identify some of the biggest needs and opportunities in the year ahead to inform the strategic approach to the next year’s Action Agenda in a way that builds year on year momentum and progress.