Digital Innovation for MEAs: Knowledge Platforms and AI | Minamata Online

About this Event

Multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) generate and manage growing volumes of information, from decisions and national reports to scientific and technical data, guidance, project information and implementation experiences. The challenge is increasingly not only to make this information available, but also to ensure that it is structured, accessible, interoperable and reusable. Digital transformation therefore offers important opportunities to strengthen institutional knowledge, improve access to information and support more effective implementation of environmental commitments. 

Cooperation across MEAs is particularly important in this context. Initiatives such as InforMEA, the United Nations Information Portal on Multilateral Environmental Agreements, provide a common framework for connecting information and knowledge across environmental agreements. Shared taxonomies, data standards and interoperable systems can help reduce duplication and make information easier to discover and use across institutional boundaries. At the same time, emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, are opening new possibilities for knowledge discovery and analysis, while raising important questions around data governance, quality, transparency and human oversight. 

The Minamata Convention on Mercury provides a practical example of this evolving approach. Building on its Digital Strategy, the Secretariat is developing a more integrated digital ecosystem to support Parties and stakeholders. Current initiatives include a decision-tracking mechanism to make decisions adopted by the Conference of the Parties more structured, searchable and easier to follow over time, as well as the Minamata Convention Exchange Platform, conceived as a user-centred knowledge system for accessing and exchanging scientific, technical, legal and implementation-related information. Interoperability with platforms such as InforMEA and other authoritative data sources is a core principle of this work. 

This Minamata Online session is taking place following the UN Digital Cooperation Day 2026, organized by the United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies. It will bring together representatives from MEA secretariats, InforMEA and governments to share practical experiences with digital platforms, knowledge tools and emerging technologies. The discussion explored what MEAs can learn from each other; how interoperability, shared standards and digital cooperation can improve access to and use of environmental information; and where responsible applications of AI could add value. It also considered opportunities for greater collaboration, with the aim of identifying approaches and lessons that can be transferred across MEAs while avoiding duplication and keeping digital solutions focused on the needs of Parties and users.

Speakers

By order of intervention.

Angela KARIUKI

Legal Officer, Law Division, UNEP

Anna GARCÍA SANS

Communications and Knowledge Management Officer, Minamata Convention on Mercury Secretariat

Claire MOREL

Information Systems Officer, Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions

Shashika SEDARA HETTIGE

Associate Information Systems Officer, CITES Secretariat

Elena SANTER

Secretary, Espoo Convention and the Protocol on SEA, UNECE

Jonas PASQUIER

Minister, Global Affairs, Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva

Diana RIZZOLIO

Coordinator, Geneva Environment Network | Moderator

Highlights

Video

Summary

Angela KARIUKI | Legal Officer, Law Division, UNEP

• Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs)  can be victims of their own success. They hold an impressive body of knowledge, national reports, scientific knowledge and knowledge that can be found and connected sometimes does not help the negotiator or the judge who is deciding on an environmental case.
• The real question is not only how to produce more information but how we make and what we already have more discoverable, interoperable, and genuinely useful to the people who implement this convention.
• This is something that Member States have asked for, reflecting also the UN Global Digital Compact that was adopted in 2024, which recognized digital technology as a lever for advancing environmental sustainability.
• Last December, the United Nations Environment Assembly adopted its first-ever resolution on AI  systems (UNEP/EA.7/Res/9). This was a genuine milestone because, for the first time, the environmental sustainability of AI was placed among the priorities of global environmental governance. This considers AI’s environmental footprint and its real potential to help us protect the environment, giving a strong foundation to build on.
  At the same session, Member States adopted a resolution on synergies, cooperation or collaboration for national implementation of multilateral environmental agreements and other relevant environmental instruments (UNEP/EA.7/Res.5).
• The momentum is very much alive in Geneva, with the first UN Dialogue on AI Governance held in July 2026. Across the UN system as a whole, there is focus building the momentum on AI. The UN Secretary-General set out the stakes, saying “machines can inform, but humans must decide, and answer.” This is a principle we try to keep in mind in our own platforms.
• InforMEA, the UN Information Portal on Multilateral Environmental Agreements, was built to connect knowledge across conventions… bringing common standards, interoperable systems, and the essential tools that let information move across institutional boundaries. The Minamata Convention is a living example of this, building its exchange platform and decision-tracking tool with interoperability with InforMEA as its core design choice. That is the spirit we want: not everyone building the same tool, but each building in a way that connects.
• We all know the promise of knowledge discovery is real, but the same resolution that welcomed it flagged the issues that come with it: data governance and quality, transparency, meaningful human oversight.
• Our goal is cooperation instead of duplication, connection over fragmentation, and knowledge that reaches the people doing the work.

Documents

• Presentations made during the event

Links

• Data, Digital Technology, and the Environment
• United Nations Information Portal on Multilateral Environmental Agreements 
• Minamata Convention on Mercury 
• Minamata Convention Exchange Platform Survey
• UN Digital Cooperation Day 2026 | Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies

Photo Credit

Photo from Merlin Lightpainting in Pexels