Events

In an era where sustainability is a critical concern permeating every facet of the Fiber-to-the-Home industry, this session delves into the strategic imperatives and urgent actions necessary for a greener future. As sustainability has evolved beyond a mere buzzword, and is now impacting all sectors of the FTTH industry, this panel brings together thought leaders and experts to explore the transformative role of sustainability in shaping the industry's trajectory. 
Attendees can expect a comprehensive discussion on the challenges, opportunities, and innovative approaches to reduce carbon emissions within our industry, with practical examples and success cases on how to embed sustainability practices into FTTH strategies. As the urgency for greener practices heightens, this session provides a platform to collectively address and navigate the complex landscape.

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Digital tools provide many opportunities to help tackle the triple planetary crisis. But in the absence of collaborative concerted efforts to steer them towards sustainable and equitable outcomes, these tools can instead risk exacerbating our crisis. Multi-stakeholder partnerships play a crucial role in operationalizing the needed collaborations and governance frameworks to advance sustainable environmental solutions in the digital age. At the Stockholm+50 conference in 2022, the UN-mandated Coalition for Digital Environmental Sustainability (CODES) launched the Action Plan for a Sustainable Planet in the Digital Age; co-designed with over 1,000 stakeholders across the globe. The Action Plan details a governance framework with collaborative Impact Initiatives to support sustainable and inclusive digital environmental solutions. In 2024, a crucial window of opportunity arises with the UN Global Digital Compact being developed and agreed until September this year. The objective of this side event is to discuss five central action areas that help to make a sustainable digital age a reality: the strategic use of global environmental data, the building blocks of sustainable digital infrastructure, the use of sustainable AI for the SDGs, the critical role of digital sustainability literacy and and how ‘digital public infrastructures (DPI)’ can support climate and environmental protection. The side event is open to civil society, researchers, tech innovators and Government representatives. It will be followed by an informal online meet-up for updates on the Global Digital Compact consultation process as well as opportunities for community networking and strategic discussions with a dedicated community.

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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

Recording: 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 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) 
Phil Brown, Director, Metabolic Institute
Sara Ahmad, Engineer Spectrum Quality, TDRA
Saifur Rahman, President, IEEE
Tim Smolcic, Director, IT Strategy, HSBC
Adam Stingmore, General Manager, Standards Australia | Strategy, Communications, Partnerships
Marco Rossi, Director of Standards, ISO
Paolo Gemma, WP2/5 Chair “Environmental efficiency, e-waste, circularity and sustainable ICT networks”, ITU
Gabriela Ehrlich, Director of Communications, IEC
Ehab Khairat, Head of Procurement, Liquid Intelligent Technologies

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

Recording: YouTube

Action Plan Report

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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)
Mr Vimal Mahendru, IEC Vice-President & Chair of the Standardization Management Board (SMB)
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

Recording: 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

Recording: YouTube

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

The Marrakesh Partnership for Global Climate Action (MPGCA) is emphasizing concrete actions aligned with the objectives of the 2030 Breakthroughs and the Sharm el Sheikh Adaptation Agenda. During The event, various Breakthrough initiatives pertinent to these goals will be discussed: For the industry session:
Steel Standards Principles: Launching common measurement methodologies for Steel to expedite the industry's transition to near-zero emissions.
Shipping as a Demand Sector for Steel & Hydrogen Breakthroughs: The shipping industry will announce its demand signal for Green Steel,
specifying a targeted amount.
Market Signals for Green Hydrogen: The Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance (AGHA) will present a new report on market signals and demand drivers for the Green Hydrogen Market.
Digital Green Action Track: Introduction of the Green Digital Action track to exhibit industry collaboration for digital climate impact.
Pharma CONVERGE Initiative: Key health sector leaders will introduce 'CONVERGE' to align the global pharmaceutical supply chain with the
Race to Zero and Sharm el Sheikh Adaptation Agenda Outcomes, focusing on health facilities.
MENA Retail Commitment: A coalition of MENA retail companies will be formed to collaborate on scope 1 & 2 emissions
Organizer: IRENA and WBCS
Venue: Global Climate Action Hub, located in the Blue Zone, Action Arena – Al Hur

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

UNEP works to harnesses the power of digital transformation to advance climate and environmental goals while mitigating the risks of technology. The Digital day will serve as catalyst to mobilize the ecosystem of governments, corporates, multilaterals, academia, investors and startups to drive a step-change in the development and deployment of technological climate solutions to bring the world back to a 1.5°C trajectory and reduce suffering for the most impacted populations and ecosystems.

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 Climate Classroom is a short interactive learning experience designed to help those attending or following climate meetings get quickly up-to-speed on important climate issues. The Climate Classroom @ COP28 will be UN CC:Learn’s 11th edition and each day throughout COP our team of experts will deliver a series of free online classes that introduce learners to a range of climate change topics – allowing delegates, professionals, and other interested parties to follow and contribute to climate discussions.
The session will take place at 10:00 – 11:00 CET.

Venue: Zoom Meeting Registration

Across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) mobile networks play a vital role connecting people and businesses, as well as forming critical infrastructure for payments, emergency care and extreme weather alerts. Bringing more people online will help close the digital divide and support achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
 
Several mobile network operators across the region are committed to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 or before, and are looking at ways to switch to renewables. But with poor or no grid connections and a reliance on diesel generators, there are obstacles to this green transition. In some countries in SSA there are now more people connected to mobile services than electricity.
 
This session, organised by the GSMA the mobile industry association, will bring together key operators in the region and the World Bank to explore how greening of mobile networks can help both energy and development challenges. This will draw on recent successes to boost renewables across the region and consider how mobile connectivity is vital to reduce emissions and become more resilient to a rapidly changing climate.

Included elements:
 
●        Role of mobile networks to support the Sustainable Development Goals
●        Current energy challenges across the SSA region
●        Commitments by mobile network operators to net zero and science-based targets
●        Research and insights from GSMA, World Bank and mobile network operators in the region

Speakers:
Steven Moore, Head of Climate Action, GSMA
Nompilo Morafo, Group Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer, MTN
Dimeji Olaniyan, SVP Strategy and Sustainability, Airtel Africa
Sara Ballan, Global Digital Development Lead, World Bank
Daniel Wetzel, Head of Tracking Sustainable Transitions Unit, International Energy Agency

Organizer: GSMA
Venue: ICC Partner Stage, Trade House Pavilion (Thematic Area 3)

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: Climate Finance Hub, Stand 217, Green Zone

This session will showcase how digital solutions can play a pivotal role in relation to climate change mitigation and adaptation action. Launched at the COP, a few sector examples from the 2nd edition of the WIPO Green Technology Book will be used to illustrate the breadth and perspective for change that IT can bring about, with direct benefits for climate-related challenges. The panel will then deep dive into the requirements for collecting climate-related data, the need for making it available and freely open for climate research, solutions and services and how vast amounts of remote sensing data, increasingly accessible, enable the development of innovative solutions, including in early warning and water management systems, in agriculture and in index-based crop insurance products. The session will serve as the culmination of the Green Digital Action @COP28 track, celebrating the progress made and setting the course for future endeavours for new collaborative climate action across the ICT sector and beyond.

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

The Climate Classroom is a short interactive learning experience designed to help those attending or following climate meetings get quickly up-to-speed on important climate issues. The Climate Classroom @ COP28 will be UN CC:Learn’s 11th edition and each day throughout COP our team of experts will deliver a series of free online classes that introduce learners to a range of climate change topics – allowing delegates, professionals, and other interested parties to follow and contribute to climate discussions.
The session will take place at 13:00 – 14:00 CET.

Venue: Zoom Meeting Registration