The latest insights from the We Mean Business coalition

COP30 and the business of conservation

With the world watching COP30 in Brazil, the host country’s actions to safeguard forests and scale clean energy solutions will be a blueprint for global conservation efforts. With so much at stake and costly climate impacts on the rise, can private sector investment be an essential piece of the puzzle?

The 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) is scheduled to take place in 2025 in Belém, Brazil, a city located at the gateway to the Amazon rainforest in the state of Pará. It is when 190+ countries will come together to review their national climate plans and investments – 10 years after adopting the Paris Agreement and amid intensifying climate impacts and geopolitical tensions. Over two weeks, national governments will negotiate policies for scaling clean energy solutions and protecting nature, unlocking public and private financial flows needed to acclerate climate action.  A central theme of the negotiations will be nature and the critical question of how to protect and restore the Amazon as one of the world’s largest carbon sinks.

With COP30 being hosted by a tropical forest country, the summit will spotlight the unique challenges these nations face in reducing emissions—where emissions from land use change and agriculture often account for more than 70% of total emissions. One of Brazil’s key priorities is mobilizing significantly more funding for nature, an area that has received staggeringly low investment relative to its outsized role in driving global emissions. 

At COP28, Marina Silva the Brazilian Environment Minister, who herself was born and raised in the heart of the Amazon, said: 

“The Amazon shows us the way, with its immense biodiversity and huge territory threatened by climate change. Holding COP30 in the heart of the forest is a powerful reminder of our responsibility to keep the planet within our 1.5°C target.”

A new role for business in the state of Pará

In January 2025 the Brazilian federal government, in partnership with the state of Pará, announced a new concession model to transfer deforested land to private companies for reforestation and restoration. The initiative directly advances Brazil’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) , which includes targets of restoring 6 million hectares of forest by 2030 and 24 million hectares by 2050. By mobilizing private capital, the program aims to accelerate forest recovery while generating economic benefits, with officials estimating that carbon credit sales could bring in over R$1 billion (about USD $169 million).

This initiative highlights the critical role of public-private collaboration in addressing climate change, particularly in closing the massive funding gap for nature. Governments cannot meet their climate targets alone—private sector investment is essential to scaling up restoration efforts. Pará’s new program builds on a growing appetite from companies to finance nature-based solutions, including forest restoration. Major corporations such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta—all members of the Beyond Alliance hosted at We Mean Business Coalition—have already committed millions of dollars to restoration projects across the Brazilian Amazon.

At COP29, We Mean Business called on countries to develop ambitious and investible NDCs that drive accelerated private sector investment in the net zero economy and global shift from fossil fuels to clean energy solutions. Pará’s initiative is a tangible example of that in practice, supporting Brazil’s NDC, which incentivizes payments for environmental services and carbon markets to meet its targets. By creating structured opportunities and incentives for corporate investment in restoring ecosystems, Brazil is demonstrating how public and private sectors can work together to drive large-scale climate action. Together, business and government can be a powerful catalyst for change.

Leading businesses have been calling on governments, led by the G20 countries, to create ambitious NDCs backed by clear targets, policies, and timelines. Read our latest report here.

Forest conservation at stake

While Brazil’s restoration goals provide hope, they must not come at the expense of tackling deforestation, which is the country’s leading source of emissions and most immediate and scalable opportunity to address climate change. Leading scientists have repeatedly emphasized that forest protection must take urgent precedence over restoration efforts. 

Upon reassuming office in January 2023, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reinstated several environmental protection measures that had been dismantled by the preceding administration. As a result, between August 2023 and July 2024, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped by 30.6% compared to the previous year, marking the lowest level of forest loss in nine years. 

Thankfully, the private sector has also shown an appetite to invest in reducing deforestation. This includes commitments from companies like Salesforce and Amazon to the LEAF coalition, and the recently announced Race to Belém, a collaboration of Silvania, The Nature Conservancy, and Conservation International that aims to mobilize billions in private sector investment ahead of COP30 to protect the Brazilian rainforest. Building on the success of Silvania’s existing work in the Brazilian state Tocantins, the program will prioritize investments focused on working with Indigenous peoples, local and traditional communities, farmers, as well as state and federal government to reduce deforestation at scale, including through high-integrity, state-led Jurisdictional REDD+ credits.

However, progress is fragile. Recent tensions between agribusinesses and conservation organizations in Mato Grosso, Brazil’s top soy-producing state, highlight the ongoing battle to keep deforestation in check. A key flashpoint is the Soy Moratorium, a voluntary agreement credited with reducing deforestation for agriculture by 69% between 2009 and 2022. Now, the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries (ABIOVE) is pushing for changes that could create loopholes for further forest loss. In December 2024, more than 70 organizations signed a manifesto defending the moratorium, as legal challenges to its protections make their way to Brazil’s Supreme Court. 

The road ahead for forest protection  

As Brazil prepares to host COP30, the country has an opportunity to once again demonstrate that economic growth and environmental stewardship can go hand in hand. From 2004 to 2012, Brazil reduced deforestation in the Amazon by 84%, even as agricultural GDP grew by 65% and soy production increased by 80%. This period proved that strong policies, enforcement, and market incentives can drive both conservation and economic prosperity. Recent progress, including a renewed focus on reducing deforestation and reforestation initiatives in Pará, signals that meaningful change is possible when the private sector and government work together towards a common goal. However, challenges remain in ensuring that conservation efforts persist alongside agricultural intensification. Looking to COP30 and beyond, the fate of the Amazon hinges on Brazil executing upon its commitments made under the Paris Agreement.

With the world watching, Brazil’s actions in this crucial year will not only shape its own environmental future but also influence global efforts to manage intensifying climate risks, shift from fossil fuels to clean energy solutions, and protect and restore nature.