Programme

The potential of AI to accelerate processes and solve problems is immense. The suite of tools and solutions that fall into the category of “Artificial Intelligence” is very broad and the opportunities, risks and possibilities are not well understood. The EW4All Initiative emphasizes the use of technology like AI to support the attainment of the objectives of the initiative but does not yet guide the operationalization or implementation of AI solutions in EW4All.
 
The objective of this session is to showcase existing use cases and potential applications of AI to produce better disaster risk knowledge, build efficient monitoring, forecasting and observation systems, improve warning dissemination and communication, and strengthen preparedness and response capabilities. At the same time, participants will also discuss ways of strengthening the EW4All coherence and linkages between pillars to improve the overall structure of the initiative, as well as the capacity-building aspects to ensuring AI solutions owned and used by the countries.

Venue: IPCC-WMO-MERI Pavilion

Unleashing Green Digital Action for a sustainable digital tech industry

The high-level opening session serves as a launchpad for the Green Digital Action track throughout the subsequent COP28 days. By spotlighting the potential of technology for environmental solutions and showcasing successful collaborative endeavors, this opening session establishes the stage for a dynamic track that fosters dialogue, innovation, and collaborative action to propel the digital tech industry toward a greener, more sustainable future.

Speakers:
Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Luis Neves, CEO, GeSI
Takayuki Morita, CEO, NEC
Tomas Lamanauskas, Deputy Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Guangzhe Chen, Vice President for Infrastructure, World Bank
Melissa Schoeb, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Nokia
Philippe Tuzzolino, VP Environment, Orange Group 
Sergio Mujica, Secretary-General, International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
Philippe Metzger, Secretary-General & CEO, International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
Victor Chen, Chief Green Transformation Officer, Standardization & Industry Development of Huawei Technologies
Naif Abdulhakeem Sheshah, Assistant Deputy Governor for Planning and Development, CST 
Marina Madale, Group Executive Sustainability and Share Value, MTN
Isabelle Mauro, Director General, Global Satellite Operators Association (GSOA)

Moderators:
Winnore Imelda Olivia Hien, Generation Connect Africa Youth Envoy
Caroline Mindus, Original Thinker & Sustainable Development, Magnitis / Mindus

Venue: UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub

Live stream: YouTube

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Digitalization will play a key role in enabling climate action. In the energy sector, it will support both renewable generation and grid transformation, allowing the sector to move faster with the green transition.
 
Technologies such as digital twins and AI can also help hard-to-abate sectors find ways to accelerate sustainability efforts. 
 
In this event, Nokia will bring together representatives from key industries to debate industrial digitalization and decarbonization. It will also introduce regulatory and financing perspectives, debating what is needed to unleash the full enabling potential of digital. 

Organizer: Nokia
Venue: Finland Pavilion

In collaboration with the ITU lead initiative “Green Digital Action@COP28” the Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and the European Commission (EU) are joining forces on the role of digital and data  as an enabler  to apply digital technology’s full potential in advancing the socio-economic transformation to a more sustainable and equitable world and to utilise innovative solutions for mitigating and adapting to climate change.

Venue: UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub

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The combination of science and innovative solutions powered by digital and AI technologies offer new avenues to tackle the climate crisis.
The first part of the event will consist of a 30-min panel discussion with high-level representatives from the lead organizations focused on the projects they developed to address challenges in water resource management, food security, energy efficiency, and the need for increased support and engagement of the international community.

The second part of the event (60 min) will feature the winning ideas of a series of competitions focused on AI solutions for climate change launched at the AI for Good Global Summit 2023, on the following themes:
Food & climate-smart agriculture
Water resource management
Reducing energy consumption of 5G networks

Venue: SE Room 4

Live Stream

Digital journey to net zero: Decarbonizing digital to accelerate the green transition

Digital technologies such as 5G, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Twins can help accelerate climate action. They are essential to mitigation efforts by cutting emissions as well as adaptation efforts by helping to identify, monitor and address impacts of climate change already being felt.
 
But as everything becomes connected, demand for data grows, and the underpinning digital infrastructures proliferate, digital emissions will grow unless the industry takes action to decouple data growth from emissions.
 
In this event, key figures from the digital sector will outline its joint ambition and commitments to decarbonize digital to accelerate the green transition.

Speakers:
Tomas Lamanauskas, Deputy Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Melissa Schoeb, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Nokia  
Philippe Tuzzolino, VP Environment, Orange Group  
Maya Ormazabal Herrero, Director of Sustainability, Telefónica 
Jeroen Kanselaar, Chairman Sustainability Committee, FTTH Council Europe 
Christine Qiang, Director, Digital Development Global Practice, World Bank 
Subho Mukherjee, Vice President Sustainability and Global Head of ESG, Nokia  

Venue: Finland Pavilion

Live stream

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Organizer: Huawei
Venue: UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub

This session on “From Commitment to Action:  Implementing Standards for a Sustainable Future”, will bring together industry leaders, experts, and stakeholders to discuss the importance and role of international standards to drive actionable strategies for a sustainable future. Experts will discuss the existing key standards for environmental sustainability, current best practices and identify the standardization gaps. An action plan for the implementation of environmental sustainability standard will be launched.

Speakers:
Seizo Onoe, Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU
Chang Xin, Vice-president of Standards and Industry Development, Huawei Technologies
Reyna Ubeda, Engineer to ITU-T SG5 “Environment, EMF and Circular Economy”
Ahmed Rashad Harb Riad, Senior Director, Strategy and Industry Development, Huawei Technologies
Justin Wilkes, Executive Director, Environmental Coalition on Standards (ECOS) 
Saifur Rahman, President, IEEE
Tim Smolcic, Director, IT Strategy, HSBC
Marco Rossi, Director of standards, ISO
Paolo Gemma, WP2/5 Chair “Environmental efficiency, e-waste, circularity and sustainable ICT networks”, ITU
Ehab Khairat, Head of Procurement, Liquid Intelligent Technologies

Venue: ISO Pavilion (Blue Zone, B7, Building 88 in Thematic Arena 3)

Live stream:
YouTube
LinkedIn

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Policymakers and tech innovators passionate about sustainability are invited to join the leading developers of international standards to discuss the service that standards provide to climate action.  
International standards can support the scale of innovation necessary to achieve a sustainable future. Driven by collaboration and consensus decisions, international standardization is a key avenue to make meaningful progress towards the future we want.  
This session aims to spotlight how sustainability principles inform the design of international standards for digital tech. It will also highlight the call to COP28 from the World Standards Cooperation (IEC, ISO and ITU) urging the adoption of international standards to fast-track climate action.  

Speakers:
Ulrika Francke, President, ISO
Tomas Lamanauskas, Deputy Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Irene Kaggwa-Sewankambo, Acting Executive Director, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC)
Sergio Mujica, Secretary-General, International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
Philippe Metzger, Secretary-General & CEO, International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
Seizo Onoe, Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU
Charlyne Restivo, Project Officer, ITU

Venue: ISO Pavilion

Livestream (LinkedIn and YouTube) 

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Jointly hosted by the Republic of the Philippines and the Better Than Cash Alliance, this event marks the global launch of the attached Call to Action.
 Please click for more info.

Organizer: Better Than Cash Alliance, UNCDF
Venue: Philippines Pavilion

Live Stream

In partnership with the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Better Than Cash Alliance, this panel discussion will explore the pivotal role of digital payments in enhancing women's resilience to climate change.
Please click for more info.

Organizer: Better Than Cash Alliance, UNCDF
Venue: Ethiopia Pavilion

In March 2022, the UN Secretary-General set up the UN Early Warning for All Initiative, which stipulates that by 2027, every person in the world should be protected by an early warning system.  
 
Warning dissemination and communication, often referred to as last-mile dissemination, pose some of the most significant challenges in the multi-hazard early warning cycle. An inclusive and effective multi-hazard early warning system must address the diverse needs of different communities and ensure that understandable and actionable warnings reach people at risk in a timely manner. 
 
The growth of digital technologies has created unprecedented opportunities to advance this initiative's ambitious goals, particularly in enhancing countries' capabilities for warning dissemination and communication. A multi-channel approach, which includes traditional mediums like radio and television as well as contemporary platforms such as social media and mobile phones, will expand the reach of alerts and address the diversity of communities. Innovations in satellite communications also play a prominent role in this array of channels. 
 
This session will spotlight the commitments and pledges made by the public and private sector, in particular the mobile and satellite industries to support the multi-channel dissemination of alerts under the EW4All initiative. It will highlight the potential of technology in reaching people at risk more effectively and showcase the opportunities that arise from public-private partnerships. 

Speakers:
​Opening
​​ITU Deputy Secreta​ry Genera​l - Tomas Lamanauskas

​Session 1: Mobile Early Warning System​
Ms. Akanksha Sharma, Head of Climate and Digital Utilities, GSMA 
Ms. Maya Ormarzabal or Mr. Daniel Maniega, Telefonica
Mr. Alexandre Freire, Commissioner, National Telecommunications Agency of Brazil, Anatel

Session 2: Direct-to-Handset Satellite warning dissemination
Ms. Isabelle Mauro, Director General, Global Satellite Operators Association (GSOA)
Mr. Jassem Nasser, Chief Business Development Officer, Yahsat
Mr. Dominic HAYES, Space Programs Frequency Manager, European Commission

Venue: WMO Pavilion

Live stream: YouTube

Organizer: World Bank
Venue: World Bank, IMF and Financial Times Pavilion

COP28 comes at a decisive moment for international climate action. This summer saw temperature records broken, and several floods and wildfires across the world. COP28 in December marks an opportunity for leaders to put the world on a more sustainable footing. The focus of COP this year will be different and will be much more on implementation. Indeed, COP28 marks the ‘Global Stocktake’ year. This will see new measures put in place to accelerate climate action and put world on the right track.

In a year where technological breakthroughs have brought generative AI, Quantum, ARVR, metaverse and web 3.0 technologies to the apex of public imagination and brought UK science, technology, and innovation to the forefront of UK policy, it has never been more important to focus on the opportunities of adopting and applying innovation to help people, society, the economy and the planet.

This roundtable discussion will deep-dive into the current opportunity around the adoption of specific technologies to improve resilience against extreme weathers and protect communities. It will show how industry, academia and government are working together to push forward innovative and exciting new discoveries and set out what implications this might have for climate action. It will explore topics such as the use of tech to measure and declare climate risk, protecting infrastructure and business critical operations, and the role of technology for contingency and future risk planning.

This roundtable will be Chatham House. Please RSVP to attend.

Organizer: techUK
Venue: Climate Innovation Zone

Large gaps exist in the geographical coverage of early warning systems. To fill these gaps by 2027, the United Nations Secretary-General launched the Early Warnings for All (EW4All) Action Plan. Case studies show that AI can contribute to the development and scaling of early warning systems as well as other climate resilience and disaster risk reduction (DRR) tools. However, AI also presents technical, ethical, and legal challenges. This panel does a global stocktake on the state of AI in climate resilience and DRR; looking at how AI is currently being used, what opportunities it presents, and what challenges must be addressed.
 
Speakers:
Bilel Jamoussi, Deputy Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU 
Monique Kuglitsch, Innovation Manager, Fraunhofer HHI
Golestan (Sally) Radwan, Chief Digital Officer, UNEP
Stefan Uhlenbrook, Director of Hydrology, Water, and Cryosphere, WMO 
Bapon Fakhruddin, Water and Climate Leader, Green Climate Fund 
Rui Kotani, Disaster Risk Reduction Coordinator, GEO 

Venue: Stocktake Pavilion

Innovative tech, industries and governments must come together to drive connected change in our overheating world. As the climate crisis accelerates, it’s no surprise that industries and governments are looking at fast-track routes to net zero, working with digital leaders to deliver measurable decarbonization progress. 

With inputs from government leaders, industry and technology innovators, AVEVA’s Caspar Herzberg will lead a discussion on how leading companies are engaging with policy-makers and leveraging digital solutions to make progress across their operations and support their value chain partners on their mitigation journeys. In the context of the ongoing COP negotiations, the panel will ask what should be the next priorities for collaborative action to respond to the climate crisis, and how can tech leaders help pave the way? 
 
Speakers:
Chris Skidmore, MP & former UK Energy Minister & author of UK Net Zero Review 
Rob Cameron, SVP, Global Head of Public Affairs & ESG Engagement, Nestlé 
Claus Runge, SVP, Head Market Access, Public Affairs & Sustainability, Bayer 
Caspar Herzberg, CEO AVEVA

Organizer: AVEVA
Venue: ICC Pavilion

Big Data on the environment is essential to our understanding of the state of the world environment and the production of science-based tools for decision-making by governments, investors, industries and consumers, among others. Recognizing the importance of better data governance and access, the UN Environment Assembly called for the development of a Global Environmental Data Strategy by 2025. This event will explore what has been done so far in the development of a Global Environmental Data Strategy (GEDS), identify gaps and opportunities, and showcase how the work of the Data for the Environment Alliance (DEAL) is shaping up future opportunities.

Organizer: UNEP
Venue: UNEP Pavilion

Annually, it is estimated that 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste are generated globally. The improper management of e-waste contributes to global warming. If materials in e-waste are not recycled, they cannot substitute primary raw materials, meaning that an opportunity is missed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the extraction and production of materials and components.
E-waste is an “urban mine” as it contains several precious, critical, and other noncritical metals that, if recycled, can be used as secondary materials. With the current documented collection and recycling rate of 17.4% globally, the recycling of iron, aluminium, and copper has contributed to a net saving of 15 Mt of CO₂, equivalent to emissions from the recycling of secondary raw materials substituted to virgin materials. However, such a low global collection and recycling rate is significantly hindering the potential for great net savings of CO₂.[1]
The efficient and effective regulation, with fair and economically viable principles, is important when it comes to improving the management of e-waste. Environmental policy principles, such as extended producer responsibility, can provide the basis for greater circularity of the products sold in a country. At the same time, combining the circular and sustainable elements of public procurement can result in ICTs with closed energy and material loops within supply chain while minimizing, and in the best case avoiding, negative impacts of e-waste generation.

The objectives of this side event will be 3-fold:
o   Increased awareness among policymakers and industry players regarding the important role of fair and economically viable regulation in the reduction of ICT waste generation and an increase in carbon savings.
o   Improved understanding of opportunities for government and industry collaboration in the area of circular economy in the ICT sector and the influential role that circular and sustainable considerations can have in policymaking and business when these sectors work together.
o   Showcasing of efforts being led by the Communications, Space & Technology (CST) Commission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in creating a circular economy for electronics at the national and global levels.

[1]The Global E-waste Monitor 2020: https://www.itu.int/hub/publication/d-gen-e_waste-01-2020/ 

Venue: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Pavilion

The event will delve into environmental data use cases. Explore the merits and challenges of utilizing national and international data sources in monitoring environmental and climate change, as well as strategies to connect these sets of data, in particular through the World Environment Situation Room.

Organizer: UNEP
Venue: UNEP Pavilion

The event will explore the transformative role of digitalization in driving sustainable behavior change. In the face of pressing environmental challenges, this event will delve into how digital technologies, such as AI, social media, and virtual reality, can be harnessed to inspire and guide individuals towards more environmentally conscious choices. Through insightful discussions and case studies, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of how digital tools can reshape consumer preferences and encourage the adoption of greener lifestyles, thereby contributing to the overarching goals of the COP28 conference.

Organizer: UNEP
Venue: UNEP Pavilion

The event will explore and showcase how AI and related technologies can be harnessed to tackle climate challenges, such as predictive modelling, climate data analysis, and optimizing resource management. It will also discuss the potential negative effect of unregulated AI on the climate and reinforce the importance of ethics. Finally, it will explore the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence in addressing climate change challenges. The panel will bring visionary leaders at the forefront of AI research and application for environmental sustainability.

Organizer: UNEP
Venue: UNEP Pavilion

This event will explore the transformative potential of National Digital Strategies and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPIs) for climate action. DPI refers to “solutions and systems that enable the effective provision of essential society-wide functions and services in the public and private sectors.” The event will share success stories and inspire countries to develop national DPI and highlight the necessity of speeding up the digital transformation of member states to allow better use of digital technologies and data for climate action.

Organizer: UNEP
Venue: UNEP Pavilion

Technology plays a critical part in emissions across all sectors. Currently, it is difficult for technologists to measure and understand the emissions across all the different types of hardware/software that a company may use. HSBC will showcase how this gap can be overcome, how companies that use technology can measure their technology-related emissions and opportunities identified.

Organizer: HSBC
Venue: tbc

Speakers:
Tomas Lamanauskas, Deputy Secretary General, ITU
Peter Oksen, PhD, Green Technology and Research Manager, Climate Change & Food Security, Global Challenges Division, WIPO
Shanar Tabrizi, Green Technology Expert, WIPO
Lars Peter Riishojgaard, PhD, Director, Global Greenhouse Gas Watch, Deputy Director, Infrastructure Department, WMO
Yana Gevorgyan, GEO Secretariat Director
Ariesta Ningrum, Manager, Climate Technology, UNFCCC/TEC
Martin Frick Director, WFP Global Office Berlin
Flávio Jorge, International Union of Radio Science

Venue: UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub