Private sector engagement

The private sector is critical to creating innovative and technological solutions, as well as providing resources to meet our global environmental challenges

UNEP is the United Nations’ leading global authority on the environment, driving transformational change on the triple planetary crisis: climate change, nature, land and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.

The actions of governments and civil society alone are not enough to tackle our most pressing environmental challenges and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The private sector is an important partner to bring innovation and sustainable changes in high-impact sector, business practices, bringing new business models and solutions working with governments and civil society.

To explore UNEP’s private sector engagement efforts from 2016 to 2023, view our reports here

Major Groups modalities

UNEP engages with the nine Major Groups as defined in the Agenda 21, which recognizes in its Chapter 23 the important role of civil society in every area in which human impacts on the environment and the need to strengthen the role of Major Groups in global governance. On this basis, UNEP engages with accredited organizations in the following nine Major Group categories

Business and IndustryChildren and YouthFarmersIndigenous…

Sectors

UNEP works with those industries whose operations and consumption patterns exert the greatest pressure on the environment. By focusing on these sectors, we aim to catalyze systemic shifts in how goods are produced, used, and disposed of—delivering tangible outcomes aligned with UNEP’s Medium-Term Strategy. Through policy support, regulatory reform, innovation, and strategic partnerships, including leveraging public and private finance, we seek to accelerate transitions toward sustainability across industries. The sectors and value chains central to this transformation are:

Highlights

2023 UNEP’s Annual Report on Private Sector Partnerships: Harnessing the Private Sector for solutions to the Three Planetary Environmental Crises

2023 Report to the Committee of Permanent Representatives on Private Sector Engagement

Tackling the three planetary environmental crises requires a transformative shift in markets, sectors and systems. This means ambitious action from the private sector is critical, and that is why the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is seeking to build wider and deeper collaborations that…