Ahead of COP31, to be hosted by Türkiye, June saw a major summit on the fight against climate change. London Climate Action Week (LCAW), an international climate platform first held in 2019 that has grown over the years into one of the world's largest independent climate events, played host to heated debates and important decisions. Held from 20 to 28 June, LCAW brings together public institutions, companies, financial institutions, academics, NGOs and international organisations to develop concrete solutions to the climate crisis, and has served for years as an important vehicle for raising awareness of climate change. By convening actors from different sectors, it also acts as a platform that accelerates the implementation of climate policies, making it something of a warm-up for the COP summits. This year, more than 75,000 people came together at over 1,300 events across London over nine days in June, making it the largest LCAW to date.
Extreme Heat Delivered Its Own Presentation on the Climate Crisis
Yet it is hard to imagine a more fitting, and at the same time more unsettling, backdrop for LCAW. As tens of thousands gathered across London to discuss climate change, the city was sweltering under the historic June heat that was scorching Europe. Some sessions were even cancelled or moved online because of the extreme temperatures. The heatwave that persisted throughout the week demonstrated the effects of the climate crisis far more powerfully than any presentation could.
One of LCAW's most important opening addresses was delivered by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. In broad terms, Guterres emphasised the need to accelerate the transition to clean energy and to translate countries' commitments in this area into concrete action. The Secretary-General also reminded the audience that efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions must not stop at carbon and that methane emissions must be reduced rapidly as well, issuing a Call to Action on Methane.
While each of the reports published by various organisations during the week focused on a different aspect of the transition, they shared a common thread: climate action is no longer merely an environmental imperative but a source of resilience, competitiveness and long-term value for companies.
One of the most prominent themes of London Climate Action Week was its focus on moving from target-setting to implementation. The financing of adaptation projects, particularly in developing countries, private sector investment and the transformation of the financial system were all debated. In this context, participants examined why viable projects struggle to access finance and what support project developers need before investors step in.
Corporate Net-Zero Standard Version 2.0 Unveiled
Energy security, access to energy at affordable prices and economic resilience also left their mark on the week's discussions. As a result, energy security, renewable energy investment, grid infrastructure and electrification came to the fore. At the Global Energy Transition and Electrification Summit held during the week, governments, companies and international organisations launched a new platform called "Electrify Now". The initiative aims to scale up the use of clean electricity in place of fossil fuels by bringing governments, international organisations, the business community, the financial sector and civil society organisations together under one roof. In this context, COP31 President and Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change Murat Kurum announced a target to raise electricity's share of final energy consumption from today's level of around 21% to 35% by 2035.
In opening addresses, panels and private meetings, the question under discussion was no longer why companies should take climate action, but how they can do so credibly in an increasingly complex operating environment. For example, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), one of the world's leading bodies for assessing and validating whether companies' emission reduction targets are truly aligned with the Paris Agreement, brought together leaders from business and civil society to introduce the Corporate Net-Zero Standard 2.0, the updated version of the international standard developed for companies to set, implement and report on their net-zero greenhouse gas emission targets.
COP31 Türkiye Action Agenda Presented
Achieving net-zero emissions requires not only companies but also sectors, financial systems, supply chains and public policy to act in concert. Because no single company, organisation or standard can deliver this transformation alone, collaboration is critical. Indeed, many sessions throughout LCAW highlighted that climate adaptation must be treated not as a concern for particular sectors but as a system-wide issue.
One such session was the roundtable titled "Pathways for Resourcing Community-Led Climate Solutions", organised by Global South House, an international platform that advocates for decision-making power and resources in climate and nature finance to reach local communities more directly. Participants stated that local communities are not merely passive recipients of investment but also actors who manage climate risks. They also emphasised that these communities, which experience the effects of climate change first-hand, hold knowledge and experience that distant institutions often lack.
Another of LCAW's flagship events was the 2026 Climate Governance Forum, which brought together representatives of government, business, the financial sector, the United Nations and civil society. Organised by Third Generation Environmentalism (E3G), an independent UK-based climate policy think tank, the forum comprehensively addressed topics including the energy transition, climate finance, resilience, electrification and private sector leadership, underlining that long-term climate goals cannot be sustained without strong and credible institutions. In addition, in the forum's diplomatic opening session, COP31 President Murat Kurum presented the COP31 Action Agenda and conveyed Türkiye's implementation-focused approach to the COP31 process to international stakeholders.
Many Topics Overlapped with the COP31 Agenda
Through the meetings and forums at LCAW, representatives of governments, international organisations, the financial sector and the private sector also came together to contribute to COP31's implementation agenda, particularly ahead of the summit in Antalya. Indeed, many of the topics that stood out in London overlapped directly with the action agenda announced by the COP31 Presidency.
Mirroring COP31's green industrialisation agenda, LCAW addressed the decarbonisation of industry and how low-carbon production can be accelerated while preserving the sector's competitiveness. Beyond forests, land use, nature-based solutions and the protection of carbon sinks, the climate resilience of cities in the face of extreme heat and disasters such as floods and droughts, another item on the COP31 agenda, was among the most discussed topics. The circular economy and waste, the impacts of extreme heat on public health, and the adaptation of health systems to climate change were also among the topics most closely aligned with the COP31 agenda.
This year's London Climate Action Week is seen as a significant turning point, as it is said to demonstrate how far both the level of expertise in the week's discussions and the capacity of public institutions, the private sector and civil society to work together have developed over the past 20 years. This offers strong evidence that awareness of the minimum requirements for confronting the reality of climate change is growing. As COP31 approaches, therefore, all stakeholders, whose capacity for collaboration continues to grow, should see the summit as a starting point for moving climate action beyond "an idea that still needs to be argued for" and into the implementation phase.
Date: 13 July 2026
