UNEA daily monitor is powered by The Youth Cafe’s delegates attending the fourth UN Environment Assembly. The newsletter tracks the most important negotiations and events and delivers the daily news through the lense of young people.

The closing session of the 2nd Science Policy Business Forum on March 10, 2019, moderated by Axel Threlfall of Reuters, offered highlights from presentations and discussions that had taken place during the two days of the Forum. Speakers from industry, education and civil society were invited to give two-minute overviews of various thematic topics.

These included the importance of big data and earth observation for measuring progress towards the Sustainable

Development Goals and for improving decision-making; the need to engage with the private sector that has experience in data science and the resources for developing infrastructure for combining different types of data; new opportunities resulting from the decreasing cost of data, in particular in the developing world; the potential of business side innovations to improve nutrition and food security while limiting environmental impacts; the key role of citizen science in delivering the 2030 Agenda through supplying data, filling gaps, and driving behavioral change; the significance of creating business networks that can drive environmental change; and the importance. of co-creating pathways for sustainable development and empowering start-ups.

Highlights of the session were the engaging statements from youth leaders who summarized their experience of the Forum and emphasized the value of establishing a dialogue across generations, and the inspiring presentation of a start-up that had educated 200 children to produce lamps from waste.

Closing remarks were given by Mr. Satya S. Tripathi, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Head of New York Office, and Dr. Jian Liu, UN Environment Chief Scientist.