The Statistics Division (SD) of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and the UN Environment Program (UNEP), in collaboration with the international research and innovation platform Artificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability (ARIES) at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), are launching a pioneering Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered application for rapid natural capital accounting: the ARIES for SEEA Explorer. 

The new open-source and user-friendly digital technology enables, for the first time, rapid, standardized and customizable ecosystem accounting anywhere on Earth. ARIES for SEEA will be available on the UN Global Platform: a cloud-service environment supporting international collaboration among all countries in the world by sharing scientific knowledge, data, methods and technology. 

The launch event will explain how the ARIES for SEEA Explorer takes a new, ground-breaking, interoperable approach that uses artificial intelligence for ecosystem accounts compilation and provides a basis for the eventual customization of models. It will cover the role of the ARIES for SEEA Explorer in the big data landscape and the relevance of the platform for global initiatives such as the SDGs and post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework; provide a demonstration of the application; and include a question-and-answer session.   

Programme 



Welcome messages

• Mr. Stefan Schweinfest, Director of the United Nations Statistics Division 
• Mr. Risenga Maluleke, Statistician-General of Statistics South Africa and Chair of the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics

Demonstration of the ARIES for SEEA Explorer

• Professor Ferdinando Villa, ARIES Lead Investigator at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3)
• Q&A moderated by Ms. Alessandra Alfieri, Chief Environmental Economic Accounts Section

Closing reflections

• Mr. Bert Kroese, Deputy Director General of Statistics Netherlands and Chair of the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental Economic Accounting