UNEA-7: Shaping an ambitious global environmental agenda
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By The seventh session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7) will bring together all 193 UN Member States in Nairobi, Kenya in December 2025 to address common environmental challenges. Accredited NGO observers, including ECOS, will join them. What can we expect? We outline the environmental potential of two key resolutions: on sustainable use of AI and sound management of chemicals and waste.
International collaboration is powerful
Climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution impact every country in the world. The triple planetary crisis is a shared responsibility, and international collaboration and solidarity is an important part of the solution.
Multilateralism faces new challenges, with trade restrictions and international tensions on the rise. But when it comes to the environment, we live on a borderless planet. The UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) provides a platform for critical dialogue to deliver lasting solutions to the world’s most urgent environmental problems. For example, UNEA is where the agreement for an international legally binding Plastics Treaty was born in 2022, with negotiations happening now. And last year, it set target dates for phasing out toxic chemicals.
Working with other NGOs, ECOS is involved in developing resolutions (the primary outcome of UN meetings). We attend sessions to monitor negotiations, give technical feedback, and share information with those in charge of drafting to advocate strong environmental principles. Civil society is an important part of the UNEA process, ensuring that all voices are heard.
What to expect at UNEA-7
Draft UNEA-7 resolutions reflect a changing world. For example, one resolution focuses on the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence (AI), and another on the environmentally sound management of minerals and metals needed for the energy transition. Other longstanding matters, such as circular economy and limiting the damage of harmful chemicals, will also be on the table. This year, experts from ECOS will follow two resolutions: on AI and chemicals.
Draft resolution on ‘Safe Responsible and Sustainable use of AI for People and Planet’ (submitted by Kenya)
Global electricity demand is rising, and AI is one of the biggest culprits, accounting for nearly 60% of electricity demand growth in buildings last year. Energy grids are under mounting pressure from AI-powered data centres, with many big tech companies shifting from renewable to non-renewable energy sources to meet their needs.
Emissions and e-waste from data centres are growing, and they eat up more and more natural resources – including land, water, and critical minerals. This perpetuates harmful practices such as deforestation, pollution, and displacement of local communities.
The rapid and unchecked development of AI threatens to derail hard-won climate goals, destabilise energy systems, and deepen environmental and social inequalities. However, because of its growing strategic importance, political support for AI infrastructure is huge, while consideration of the massive environmental impacts is still comparatively small.
A UN resolution on making AI more sustainable and responsible could be momentous. It could help to change the conversation, steering governments away from narrowly focusing on competition and efficiency and towards a conversation that also integrates principles like sufficiency, circularity, transparency, and public interest.
This is a unique opportunity to align the global digital transition with environmental and social responsibility at a time when it could really make a difference.
🔗 Read more about the environmental impacts of data centres and possible EU responses in this report
Draft resolution on ‘Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste’ (submitted by Switzerland)
We saw progress on chemicals at the last UNEA in 2024, with an action-oriented resolution that provided a new multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder framework for managing chemicals – with good involvement of civil society. UNEA-6 also brought critical momentum to international policy discussions on chemicals, now led by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Panel on Chemicals, Waste and Pollution.
We hope to see ambition on chemical management built on at UNEA-7. In particular, we will be looking for:
- Transparency of substances in materials and products along value chains. Functional circular economies cannot be built on toxic materials – and a big part of that is knowing what is in every product.
- A focus on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and their breakdown products such as trifluoroacetic acid (TFA). TFA is very persistent and very mobile, and concentrations of this chemical are increasing in soils and waters around the globe. There is evidence showing that it comes from the breakdown of F-Gases and some other PFAS substances. We would like to see the UN acknowledge that the PFAS pollution crisis is growing in magnitude and needs a clear focus. We will recommend that these substances are named in the resolution as a target for action.
🔗 Read more about our work on chemical transparency in this letter, and PFAS in this factsheet
How to ensure environmental ambition at UNEA-7
UN resolutions are high-level, not legally binding, and consensus based. This can make it challenging to reach the level of environmental ambition needed to address the triple planetary crisis effectively. But it can be done – and we need it more than ever.
Civil society has an important role to play and should be adequately involved in overseeing and contributing to the process. The ECOS team in Brussels and Nairobi will be calling for stronger environmental ambition at UNEA, exploring opportunities to influence environmental policy by contributing to resolutions and collaborating with like-minded organisations. Is that you? Get in touch!
