home

This event will outline a path for mainstreaming environmental sustainability across all workstreams of the Global Digital Compact (GDC) implementation. It will discuss the critical intersection of environmental sustainability and economic growth, guiding the environmentally sound development and use of digital technologies and AI. With a mixture of Member States from all regions, this event’s panel will focus on leaving no one behind in the implementation of the Principle (e) by addressing the digital divide and specifically the growing AI divide – where countries without strong digital infrastructure, data systems, or regulatory capacity risk being excluded from the benefits of technology.

This side event at UNEA-7 brings together leading standards bodies, scientific data networks, research institutions, and government experts to address the critical challenge of environmental data interoperability. While environmental data is abundant, its value is often locked away in silos or rendered inconsistent by a lack of common standards. The event will explore how harmonized data standards can unlock the full potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for environmental action, supporting the implementation of the Global Environmental Data Strategy (GEDS) and enabling collective, data-driven solutions to the environmental crisis.

Since March, the Coalition coordination team (France, ITU, UNEP) has been working on the mapping of all the international and collaborative initiatives on sustainable AI. This mapping is a valuable tool in promoting a greener AI internationally, aligning it with global environmental objectives and accelerating the ecological transition. It makes sure that we do not