Join CODES Roundtable on Environmental Sustainability in Global AI Governance
Background
Artificial Intelligence holds significant potential to accelerate environmental action and support countries in achieving their commitments under the 2030 Agenda and the Rio Conventions. Yet the same technologies carry a growing footprint of their own — rising energy and water demand, resource extraction, and electronic waste. The Global Digital Compact, the UNEA-7 Resolution on Environmental Sustainability of AI Systems, or the Hamburg Declaration on Responsible AI for the SDGs all signal an emerging consensus that digital innovation, including AI, must be intentionally aligned with our sustainability agenda.
Against this backdrop, the CODES roundtable picks up questions worth pausing on: across the two days Global Dialogue on AI Governance that will have preceded our roundtable, has the planetary dimension of AI received sufficient attention? Do digital governance and sustainable development processes still continue to evolve largely in parallel? How can we secure the Planet a seat in those processes and align digital with the sustainability transformation at large? And do we see signs that the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI will address these environmental dimensions? We want to use this session to gather and help close that remaining gap, surface practical contributions for implementation and prepare valuable entry points for upcoming key international fora.
The Coalition for Digital Environmental Sustainability (CODES) was founded in 2021, in response to the UN Secretary-General’s call for a new landscape of digital governance and collaboration. CODES serves to bring this landscape to life by setting priorities for a sustainable planet in the digital age in global fora and related communities of practice, and by cultivating action through the broader CODES network.
Objectives
- AI forenvironmental action: share lessonslearned, solution examples, and policy implications, including Digital PublicInfrastructure (DPI) and data governance
- Sustainable AI: iterate the latest science, standards andpolicy responses to AI's environmental footprint, especially emerging issuesand blind spots
- Partnerships: explore cooperation opportunities andstrategic initiatives for the road ahead
Format
The session will be opened and hosted by two of the CODES co-champions: Tomas Lamanauskas, Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and Dirk Messner, President of the German Environment Agency (UBA).
This is a working roundtable, not a panel. Every expert in the room is invited to contribute, and each one willing to contribute is given a dedicated 3-minute input slot.
Logistics and Participation
Date, time: 8th July 9:00 – 11:00
Venue: ITU, Room E
Capacity: 30 people in person (invite only)
In-person attendance will be by invitation only due to the small venue and security procedures. Confirmed in-person speakers and participants will receive an email with arrival information.
Express your interest through this form: CODES Roundtable: Expression of Interest to Speak
