Sustainably produced food in an Indigenous community in the San Martín region in the Peruvian Amazon, May 2019. (Geneva Solutions/Paula Dupraz-Dobias)

🌱 Can sustainable development and climate action rely on the private sector? With mounting climate change impacts increasingly at odds with tight international resources, there has been a growing expectation that private finance will pitch in. But is that too much to ask?

🔬Whose up for some science? Cern’s long-anticipated CHF 100 million science education and outreach centre will open to the public on Monday 8 October, following an inauguration ceremony this weekend attended by an A-list of names, including Swiss President Alain Berset, architect Renzo Piano and John Elkmann, scion of Italy's Agnelli dynasty, whose foundation Stellantis provided the lion’s share of the funding.

Featuring a 900-seat auditorium, laboratories and exhibition spaces for holding activities, daily science shows and lectures, Cern said the Science Gateway will act as “a beacon to encourage young people to aim for careers in science and technology”.

🌁Building Bridges is back. The fourth edition of the high-level summit is taking place today at Geneva’s International Conference Centre. Among some of its key initiatives, the international Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures will mark its European launch with the release of a new framework to help companies “identify, assess and understand their impact on nature”.

Star speakers who’ll be rubbing shoulders this year at the conference include the World Trade Organization’s chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti and political figures, including Sigrid Kaag, deputy prime minister and minister of finance of the Netherlands.

🏙️ City leaders in town. If there wasn’t enough going on already in Geneva this week, the mayors and other high-profile councillors from 50 global cities will be gathering across the road from Building Bridges at the Palais des Nations for the third edition of the Forum of Mayors, hosted by the The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). It will be the agency’s first major event under its new Moldovan executive secretary Tatiana Molcean.

With 75 per cent of the regions represented by the UNECE living in cities, the platform aims to “deepen collaboration between different levels of government, both within and between countries”, she said.

Flags on Geneva's Pont du Mont Blanc during the AI for Good Global Summit 2023, held on 6-7 July 2023. (ITU Pictures)

🔮 AI Diplomacy: what vision for the future of multilateralism? From the corridors of the Palais des Nations in Geneva to bustling embassies around the world, diplomats are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence (AI) to implement foreign policy. However, the integration of AI into diplomacy also brings with it significant risks that could compromise the very essence of diplomatic practice, writes Dr Jérôme Duberry, managing director of the Tech Hub at the Geneva Graduate Institute and academic advisor of the Executive Degree in Diplomacy, Negotiation and Policy.

This section was produced for, and in partnership with, the Geneva Graduate Institute's Executive Programme. More information here.