Why B Lab U.S. & Canada Is Showing Up at COP30: Embedding Climate Justice Into the Future of Business

Next week, the world will gather in Belém, Brazil, for COP30 — the landmark United Nations conference where countries, companies, and civil society come together to negotiate solutions to the climate crisis. While often seen as a space for diplomats and policymakers, COP is increasingly a stage for business — because the private sector plays a decisive role in addressing the interconnected crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and inequality. For B Lab, it is clear that the climate crisis is also a governance crisis.

For decades, businesses have been rewarded for short-term profits at the expense of long-term resilience. But this moment calls for something different — a structural shift in how our economies operate, how decisions are made, and who those decisions serve. That’s why B Lab U.S. & Canada is joining our global network — B Lab Global and Sistema B — at COP30: to demonstrate that business can be a powerful lever for systemic change when accountability, equity, and purpose are built into its core.

From Commitment to Accountability

During the first week of COP30, B Lab and Sistema B will host Designing 2030: Business Leaders at the Heart of Climate Action — a closed-door dialogue bringing together B Corps, purpose-driven companies, and strategic partners to explore how climate and nature can serve as catalysts for systems change. The following day, An Evening in the Amazon will celebrate collective action and deepen collaboration across movements and organizations.

These events build on the release of B Lab’s Standards, a rigorous framework that defines what credible, measurable impact looks like in practice at a global scale. Under B Lab Standards V2.1, every Certified B Corporation must meet verifiable requirements across seven impact areas — from Climate Action and Human Rights to Purpose and Stakeholder Governance. This means setting science-based targets, publishing transition plans, integrating climate goals into governance structures, and practicing human rights due diligence throughout the value chain.

In short, B Corps are showing what business leadership looks like when climate accountability and social equity aren’t side projects — they’re integral to how the company operates.

The B Lab COP30 Manifesto: A Call for Structural Change

Ahead of COP30, the B Lab global network published a Manifesto calling on governments, regulators, and business leaders to embed stakeholder governance and long-term accountability into the rules that shape our economies. It proposes a clear package of policy and business solutions to accelerate the just transition:

• Legal pathways for stakeholder governance and benefit corporations.
  
• Mandatory climate transition plans and emissions disclosures.
  
• Nature reporting and stewardship requirements.
  
• Human rights due diligence across the value chain.
  

These measures are not abstract ideals — they are the conditions for credible climate leadership. They turn commitments into enforceable practice and align business performance with the well-being of people and the planet. B Lab will deliver the Manifesto to the COP30 President, Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, to highlight the unified voice of the B Corp movement.

Advancing Climate Justice Through Business

For B Lab U.S. & Canada, climate justice has been a central focus — recognizing that climate change doesn’t impact everyone equally, and that solutions must be inclusive by design. Through initiatives like our Climate Finance Program, which has supported multiple cohorts of businesses in examining how their financial practices influence emissions, and our Principles for Partnership, a framework that centers on climate justice and guides equitable collaboration with frontline communities, we’re building the tools and relationships needed for a just transition.

At COP30, we’ll use this global platform to advocate for the structural changes that make such leadership possible. Because while progress depends on science-based targets and verified emissions data, it also depends on dignity, equity, and shared accountability.

A Moment for Collective Transformation

Across more than 100 countries, over 10,000 Certified B Corps are already demonstrating that a just and regenerative economy is possible. But systemic transformation requires more than individual excellence; it requires interdependence. That’s the message we’re bringing to Belém: no single actor can solve the climate crisis alone, but together, we can rewrite the rules of the economy to serve all people and the planet.

This is what business leadership must look like in the decisive decade ahead — accountable, inclusive, and rooted in justice.

If your company will be at COP30 in Belém, we’d love to connect — please reach out at partnerships@bcorporation.net

And if you haven’t yet, join the movement by signing B Lab’s COP30 Manifesto to stand with us in calling for structural change toward a just and regenerative economy.