What’s at stake at UNGA 2026?

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Climate change

Here is a subject I’d like to see discussed at the U.N.: artificially cooling the planet!

It is now clear that the human race is not going to wean itself off fossil fuels in time to prevent a dramatic warming of planet Earth. Powerful arguments have been made for decades for hastening the transition away from a hydrocarbon-based energy economy to greener alternatives, and they have undoubtedly contributed to the rapid spread of the latter. Yet the transition has not been nearly as fast as experts have advocated. Nor has it been fast enough to prevent a continuation of major warming trends. Indeed, until the mid-2020s, aggregate carbon dioxide emissions continued to rise each year. Oil has proven simply too appealing, and too prevalent on Earth, for human civilization to have weaned itself off this remarkable resource. That will make for scary scenarios, from superstorms to unbearable heat in already hot regions, to shifting rainfall patterns and drought, to rising oceans and flooding of major cities in places like China, to the loss of much of Florida as well as the outright disappearance of some island nations. These outcomes may not be existential for the human race, but they nonetheless could be catastrophic for large swaths of the Earth’s human population. A United Nations that “delivers for all” and thinks in terms of big ideas and “transformation,” as this year’s meeting is supposed to do, should be aiming to address a problem that is increasingly threatening to large swaths of the world’s population—and for which current policy responses are proving far from adequate.

Although many are wary of “playing God” and trying to counteract this artificial, human-caused warming of the planet with an additional artificial, anthropogenic intervention to cool the planet, such an approach may be less risky than not doing so. As Bill Gates notes, “we’re already running a massive experiment on the planet by emitting huge amounts of greenhouse gases.” There are many worthy ideas that should be advanced and implemented to counter the effects of warming. Yet it seems highly unlikely that they will add up to enough to stem our current trajectory to a badly disrupted climate. Therefore, at a minimum, we should get much more serious about doing the kind of preparatory work—field research, prototyping of necessary technologies, serious discussion of how to manage any such effort multilaterally—so that a decision could perhaps be made in the 2030s to cool planet Earth modestly for perhaps several decades—if no better way to stabilize the planet’s climate, along with its storms and seas, has emerged by then.

There are several possible mechanisms by which humans, through the United Nations or G20 or a coalition of the willing, might seek to cool the planet by, say, 1 degree Celsius relative to the new normal. That new normal will probably be 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels by the time any such initiative would be developed, approved, and implemented. So the goal might be to undo half the warming, for example. As one approach, we could seed clouds with salt spray to make them somewhat more reflective of incoming sunlight. But perhaps the most plausible approach is through stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) of sulfur dioxide. The broader concept, which can employ multiple methods, is called solar radiation management (SRM), or, more simply but with the same acronym, sun reflection management. 

The U.N. General Assembly offers something rare for Americans: an open window on what the rest of the world cares about. Often there are big surprises. 

For 2026, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has pointed to three existential threats that need attention at the weeklong gathering in New York: runaway artificial intelligence, income inequality, and climate change. Two of these are omnipresent in American political debates today.  But climate change has disappeared. The Trump administration is dismantling most of the federal policy apparatus on climate change, largely with the consent of fellow Republicans. Democrats, meanwhile, are saying little about the problem because polling data suggest most Americans don’t much care about the topic.

Climate change may be the prominent topic where UNGA and America most differ. In addition to floor speeches, the U.N. is hosting a daylong summit specifically on the topic, and hundreds of other climate-related events will take place across New York City. In light of U.S. backtracking, governments are seeking  ways to cooperate without the United States. Exactly how far smaller groups can travel without the world’s largest economy remains to be seen. Europe leads in this effort, but many other countries (e.g., Canada and Brazil) are following suit..  Such efforts are reshaping diplomacy and, over time, will weaken the American voice in how the world is governed. 

President Trump’s U.N. speech made it clear that climate change isn’t the only place where he is at odds with most of the rest of the world. On artificial intelligence, many other leaders are raising alarms. Even as leading U.S. firms also call for a slowdown, President Trump declared he wants full speed ahead to superintelligence. 

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Young people and AI safety

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming embedded in the technologies that shape everyday life, often without users realizing it. For children, AI is already present in schools and learning platforms, social media and video content, toys and conversational agents, and even products designed for infants and families.

At the same time, some builders of the world’s most advanced AI systems  warn that capabilities may be advancing faster than safeguards. Calls from AI leaders to slow or better pace development should add urgency to the policy response.

Children’s encounters with AI raise questions about privacy and safety, but also brain development, learning, agency, trust, and relationships. Evidence on both the risks and benefits is still emerging, particularly for the youngest children. The 81st U.N. General Assembly offers an opportunity to put children at the center of the emerging global AI governance agenda. The United Nations is not starting from scratch. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provides an international legal foundation, while new U.N. mechanisms are bringing countries together around AI governance. What is missing is a common global baseline for children.

At UNGA 81, leaders should begin a process toward shared safeguards for children and AI—whether through a global standard, a new international instrument, an optional protocol to the CRC, or another mechanism. And as global AI governance takes shape, children should be designed into it from the start, not added later.

This year at the UNGA meetings I am focusing on the debate and dialogue around artificial intelligence and children and youth. As the power of generative AI grows, and we see recent calls from its creators warning of dire consequences if safeguards are not clearly established for its further development and use, will the United Nations be able to play an impactful role in helping coordinate common sense AI safety across borders? How will the debate around protecting young people from the potential harms of AI interface with the need to educate young people for a changing technological world that shapes their social interaction, their learning, and their readiness for college and career?

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Trust and education

With replenishments for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and Education Cannot Wait (ECW) approaching, several events at UNGA this year focus on increasing the volume of investment in children. Heads of state and ministers will announce new investments in domestic financing and co-financing to transform education for 750 million children across the globe. A flagship event, “Investing Early, Building Futures: Journey to the First-Ever Global Early Years Finance Summit 2027,” is bringing together world leaders, ministers, agency heads, and foundations to build momentum for transformational investment in the early years, hosted at UNICEF House with Theirworld.

This is my 11th year attending the UNGA events in New York City. One thing that I’ve noticed over all these years is that there has been a lot of talk about financing and not a lot of talk about costing. Cost evidence is critical to know how much is needed and where and how to invest scarce resources. Ministers of finance, donor agencies, and philanthropic funders need this data to trust that the investments they are making are good ones. Implementing organizations need to know how much it will take to get the outcomes they want to see and how much to ask for. Researchers can help instill trust in an investment if they pair evaluation data with quality cost data. Families need to be able to trust that the choices they are making for their children are worth it. Yet, quality cost data are scarce, and they often aren’t at the center of these important conversations.

At the Center for Universal Education, we have been focusing on both costing and financing for education and the early years for over a decade now. This year at UNGA, we’re sharing the work of the Global Costing Taskforce for Education and ECCE at a few events including one at Education House: Building Strong Foundations: Practical Solutions for Early Foundational Learning where we’re making the case to the government, implementers, funders, and researchers in the room that they should commit to supporting the generation and use of more harmonized cost data in their organizations. The only way to get to a world in which we can trust that we are making the right decisions about how much we’re spending and on what, is if we have transparency about what it actually costs. Let’s hope that this year at UNGA, we hear more about cost in those conversations about finance!

The 81st U.N. General Assembly theme is “Restoring trust, managing transformation: A United Nations that delivers for all.” As General Assembly President Khalilur Rahman noted, “Trust cannot simply be requested—it must be earned.”

Most young people’s first experience with trust in public institutions is through schools. For adults, public trust in schools is often an indication of their trust in other public institutions. Although trust in public education and healthcare systems has waned globally over the past few years, trust in education still remains relatively high compared to other public institutions. Education systems are key to building and restoring trust, as public trust is often built through local institutions and relationships. According to the OECD, day-to-day interactions with schools and public institutions “remain key drivers of trust” in government.

The Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution has been advancing research and tools to measure trust within schools across six continents. Trust can be measured, and it can be strengthened by developing effective strategies that meet the context. Trust is centered on a shared vision and a common agenda formed through authentic partnership; it also includes integrity, following through with promises and commitments made. Trust is also informed by interactions and the culture of listening and making space for all communities, particularly those that have been historically excluded from decisionmaking. Finally, trust is based on respect and care shown by leaders and members of our communities and ecosystems. 

Decisions on AI use in school and beyond are complicating trust, as is social media. More than ever, we need the U.N. and global leaders to prioritize trust, measure it, and develop strategies to strengthen trust—not just for better governance, but to ensure our children have the ecosystem they need to thrive.

We are on the cusp of a fifth industrial revolution, powered by digital technologies and AI. Yet, days before world leaders gathered in New York for this year’s 81st session of the U.N. General Assembly, the chief executives of the companies building the most advanced AI systems made a public case for slowing development, citing safety, security and oversight. Their concern is that humans may lose control of these systems.

There is a second concern: Research suggests that as large language models mediate classrooms, workplaces, and everyday communication, they homogenize human thought and reasoning, privilege dominant patterns, and marginalize other ways of knowing. Both concerns stem from the same assumption that human judgment must hold this technology to account. Schools are where that capacity is built.

Education will have its moment when Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 returns for in-depth review at the 2027 High-Level Political Forum, ahead of the SDG Summit that September. The terms of that review, however, are being set now, through expert group meetings, national reporting,  and the post-2030 education consultations, all of which will need a working answer to the question, “what is education for?”

At Brookings, we understand education systems transformation as the intentional, continuing, and values-driven renegotiation of what an education system is for and the coherent repositioning of every component behind that renewed purpose. Evidence from Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America shows gaps between what curricula promise and what classrooms deliver, limits on young people’s agency to shape the skills they build, and tensions in deeply held assumptions about the purpose of education.

A General Assembly that has set itself the task of restoring trust should insist that the 2027 review looks beyond access, learning, and what works to achieve these at scale, to the purpose and relevance of education in a rapidly changing world.

In these complex times—climate disasters, chronic violence, democracies in trouble, income disparities, the exponential rise in AI—getting education right should take top priority. Education is how we’ll imbue future leaders and citizens with the knowledge, judgment, tools, and zeal to make the right decisions, get along, and improve the structures and systems that led us to this precipice. If countries do not  balance job development, civic equity, human flourishing, and community health and manage AI—the social asymmetries will only grow. Education undergirds these issues: leveraging formal and informal learning systems to support creative, thoughtful, skilled, empathetic, and agentive young people to take over and lead where we could not.

To that end, at this UNGA this year I’ll be on the lookout for education leaders prioritizing education system coherence and stakeholder coordination. I’ll be searching for conversations that prioritize teachers as the heart of student learning. I’ll be paying attention to people who view equity and input from youth not as an afterthought or pro forma checklist but as fundamental human threads that push our work forward. And I will be ready to champion and learn from participants who will commit to the hard work and show the courageous leadership and humility needed to improve education at scale around the globe.