AI & The Planet

Wednesday 23 September · UNDP Headquarters, One United Nations Plaza · with UNDP and CODES

Most boardroom conversations about AI and the environment start with cost and risk. This one starts with return.

Hosted inside the UN system with CODES, the UN-convened Coalition for Digital Environmental Sustainability, the morning puts one question to industry, researchers and multilateral institutions: where is AI already delivering measurable environmental and development gains, and what would it take to scale them?

The focus is on the applications with the widest reach — AI as a driver of sustainable growth in developing economies, as the operating logic of circular business models, as a route to resource efficiency and to inclusive access rather than a new divide.

Round-table interventions follow the three systemic shifts of the CODES Action Plan: Align, Accelerate, Mitigate. Participants bring evidence from their own institutions, not positions, and the morning closes on next steps.

A digital solution is worth what it can be shown to deliver.