Ahead of COP30, the Centre for Climate Engagement is supporting a campaign seeking global academic expert knowledge on climate proofing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs).
The UN Climate Change High Level Champions’ Climate-Proofing SMEs campaign is run by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in collaboration with the International Universities Climate Alliance, the SME Climate Hub, the We Mean Business Coalition, and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, including CCE. It builds on last year’s COP29 campaign, and on the Drivers, Enablers and Challenges identified in 2024.
CCE’s Dr Eldrid Herrington is Head of Academic Engagement for the campaign, which aims to collate knowledge in response to these questions:
- How can governments best support SMEs to address their emissions and climate risk exposure?
- What climate mitigation and adaptation solutions are proving cost-effective or ineffective for SMEs?
The campaign #ClimateProofingSMEs was launched by the COP29 High-Level Champion to empower and enable Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to take ambitious climate action, and 9,000 SMEs have signed up so far. The campaign elevates the voices and role of SMEs, cementing them as a critical piece of a just transition to a resilient net zero future. By bringing together global and local organisations, it creates a connected supporting ecosystem for SMEs to tackle systemic barriers and build their capacity to not only survive but shape the pathway and thrive as a result of the green transition.
SMEs power the global economy, forming the backbone of supply chains and local communities. They make up 90% of businesses globally and generate more than half of global GDP and emissions. But SMEs are unsupported in the just transition to net zero. This campaign elevates their voices and their role as a critical piece of the transition. By bringing together global and local organisations, it creates a supporting ecosystem for SMEs to tackle systemic barriers, and build their capacity to shape the transition pathway, and thrive as a result.
Following COP29, CCE’s Dr Eldrid Herrington used Rapid Evidence Synthesis (RES) to produce a report on climate-proofing SMEs. She spoke about the benefits of using RES to improve environmental decision-making in a discussion at London Climate Action Week 2025.
As a campaign partner, CCE is calling on academic experts on SMEs and climate change to:
- Provide links to their existing research publications in this broad subject area and/or to brief plain language summaries of their research.
- Engage in an online dialogue on this subject with colleagues across the globe (targeting October 2025, ahead of COP30).
- Potentially contribute to a high-level policy focused hybrid event at COP30 and inform conversations with the UN Climate Change High Level Champions, government and non-state-actor representatives.
Dr Herrington said:
“SMEs play a critical part in the global economy and carbon system but are often overlooked in the world of climate action. Yet academics are studying this issue, and its solutions, across the globe. By calling on and working with them to gather evidence, identify gaps, and deploy networks, we can transform SMEs into powerful climate actors.”
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