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The case for a Dutch fossil fuel transition roadmap

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The Netherlands is updating its national energy plan. A credible fossil fuel exit strategy must be a part of it. Guest blog by Yvo de Boer, former Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC. Originally published on Backchannel here. When I led the UN Climate Change Secretariat during the Copenhagen talks, climate change was still treated by many as a far off risk. Today, it is an immediate economic and physical being felt in every corner of the globe. Four consecutive extreme heat waves were responsible for at least 35,000 excess casualties in Europe , and preliminary estimates show between €15 billion and €19 billion in direct damages from fires in southern Europe. Earlier this year in Santa Marta, Colombia, the Netherlands co-hosted the first global forum dedicated to the transition away from fossil fuels. It was a bold step that helped accelerate a vital international conversation. But our global voice is only as strong as our progress at home. To stay credible, the Netherlands must now del...
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In 2015, governments negotiated four major global agreements in less than ten months.

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  Guest blog: Lenni Montiel: Senior UN Development Leader (Ret.) | Former UN Assistant Secretary-General |UNDP Resident Representative | Governance, Public Policy & Multilateral Diplomacy | Leadership Advisor & Trainer | Chevening Scholar. Lenni writes on LinkedIn about the UN and international development. Originally published here. In 2015, governments negotiated four major global agreements in less than ten months. Most people remember the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet the SDGs were only one piece of a much larger architectural shift. Look at the timeline of that single year: ๐Ÿ‘‰ In March: the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. ๐Ÿ‘‰ In July: the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development. ๐Ÿ‘‰ In September: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with its 17 Goals and 169 targets. ๐Ÿ‘‰ In December: the Paris Agreement on climate change. Taken together, these agreements reflected how profoundly development thinking had evolved ove...
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No single government, company or institution can govern AI alone.

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Guest blog: Lenni Montiel: Senior UN Development Leader (Ret.) | Former UN Assistant Secretary-General |UNDP Resident Representative | Governance, Public Policy & Multilateral Diplomacy | Leadership Advisor & Trainer | Chevening Scholar. Lenni writes on LinkedIn about the UN and international development. Originally published here. This is perhaps one of the most important messages emerging from the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, held in Geneva on 6–7 July 2026. It makes a strong argument for multilateral cooperation and for the distinctive value of the UN's universal membership as a forum for dialogue, coherence and interoperability among different initiatives, values and governance models that may never fully converge. The Co-Chairs’ Summary of the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, offers an early indication of how governments and other stakeholders begin to frame AI governance collectively through the UN system. Its emerging themes do not con...
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