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Saving the world’s glaciers. Reining in massive seaweed blooms. Reducing the environmental impact of artificial intelligence. These are just a few of the issues that are expected to be front and centre this week as representatives from more than 170 countries gather in Nairobi, Kenya, for the seventh session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7).
The assembly is the world’s top decision-making body on the environment and this year’s session comes at what experts call a critical time for the Earth. The three planetary environmental crises of climate change, nature, land and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste are pushing natural systems to their breaking point, with potentially dire consequences for humanity.
UNEA-7 runs from December 8 to 12, 2025. It will focus on how countries can, in the words of UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director, Inger Andersen, find “real solutions to real-world problems.
“This is also a year in which the world remained off track on efforts to slow climate change, to halt biodiversity loss and land degradation, to deal with plastic pollution,” Andersen said in the lead up to the assembly. “So, this is what we must do: deliver solutions that spark stronger, faster action on the three planetary environmental crises.”
Representatives are slated to discuss 15 draft resolutions and three draft decisions, including those calling on countries to protect fast-disappearing glaciers, better manage the production of minerals and metals, and end the scourge of seaweed blooms, which are swamping beaches around the world.
Perhaps one of the most-watched resolutions will be one that urges countries to reduce the environmental footprint of artificial intelligence. A growing body of research has found the data centres that house the technology consume vast amounts of power and water, churn out electronic waste and rely on minerals that are often mined unsustainably.
While not legally binding, UNEA-7 resolutions help countries find common ground and have in the past laid the groundwork for precedent-setting international agreements.
Alongside the debate over the resolutions, UNEA-7 will feature three high-profile discussions, exploring why environmental sustainability is critical to industry, global finance and human health.
National leaders, including heads of state and government, will gather on UNEA-7’s penultimate day for a series of speeches and meetings. The talks come amid rising conflicts and simmering trade tensions. But leaders are hopeful those perturbations will not derail the UNEA-7 discussions.
“It is clear that even in times of geopolitical shifts and challenges to multilateralism, Nairobi remains the strong, beating heart of environmental diplomacy,” said UNEP’s Andersen.
The first UNEA was held in 2014, ushering in a new era of international cooperation in which countries vowed to work together on environmental challenges, much like they do on other global concerns, like security and trade. Over the last 11 years, UNEA has passed resolutions on everything from combating wildlife trafficking to ending plastic pollution.
More than 4,800 people have registered for this year’s session, which will take place at the UN Office in Nairobi, a 56-hectare complex that is the only UN Secretariat headquarters in the Global South. Alongside the formal discussions, there will be a series of official side events, UNEA-linked associated events and exhibitions put on by representatives from Multilateral Environmental Agreements, bodies that work closely with UNEP and UNEA to address the three planetary environmental crises.
UNEA-7 will also feature the launch of the seventh Global Environment Outlook, a landmark report on the state of the planet. The winners of the 2025 Champions of the Earth award, the UN highest environmental honour will be announced while a gala will celebrate several pioneering efforts to restore the natural world.
