The Club of Rome has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) to drive knowledge and action on regeneration in Latin America.

Mariano Jabonero, Secretary-General of the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI), and Silvia Zimmermann, Co-President of the Club of Rome, led the signing of this regional strategic alliance in Buenos Aires, consolidating the first initiative of the Club of Rome Latin American Network.

This agreement aims at driving a transformative socio-ecological agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean, framed within the process of strengthening and expanding the Club of Rome Latin American Network. The initiative builds upon the cooperation protocol signed during the International Conference "Thought and Action: The Path to Regeneration," held in April 2026 in Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires, October 15th, 2026 — In an institutional milestone for the region, the Secretary-General of the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), Mr. Mariano Jabonero, and the Co-President of the Club of Rome International, Silvia Zimmermann, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and a Specific Work Agreement.

Beyond Latin America, the partnership reflects the Club of Rome's wider strategy to strengthen its presence and impact across continents. The aim is to move beyond a global-first approach and build up at every scale: local, national and continental. The Club of Rome Latin American Network is the first of these continental initiatives. Led by Co-President Silvia Zimmermann, it gives members and partners a space to shape the organisation's global agenda from a Latin American perspective. Similar possibilities are now being explored in Africa. Strategic partnerships rooted in each region, such as this one with the Organization of Ibero-American States, are central to this approach.

The signing was also attended by Luis María Scasso, Director and Permanent Representative of the OEI in Argentina; Gonzalo del Castillo, Executive Director of the Argentine Chapter of the Club of Rome; Belén Bertero, Applied Research Coordinator at the Argentine Chapter of the Club of Rome; and Diego Badaloni Giner, Member of the Board of Directors of the Argentine Chapter of the Club of Rome, who accompanied the authorities during the meeting.

A cutting-edge regional project

The signing of the agreement lays the groundwork for implementing the regional project "Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Regeneration: Building a Knowledge Infrastructure for Regeneration in Latin America (2026-2028)".

The central objective of the project is to advance the development of a regional knowledge infrastructure for the socio-environmental regenerative transition in Latin America and the Caribbean by diagnosing capabilities, mobilising a multi-stakeholder network, and designing evidence-based decision-support tools.

The project will operate under the direction of the Ibero-American Observatory of Science, Technology and Society (OCTS) of the OEI and the Secretariat of The Club of Rome Latin American Network, both based in Argentina.

The joint signing between the OEI and The Club of Rome represents a fundamental step toward strengthening Latin America's own sovereign scientific-technological capabilities, seeking to reinforce the region's role as a leading engine for systems thinking and regenerative action.

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Nearly 50 years after the Club of Rome warned of a "human gap" between humanity's power to transform reality and its capacity to understand the consequences, Constellations of Hope explores how education can help close that gap.

90 authors from 25 countries across 5 continents document evidence of transformation already underway. They work in Himalayan farming communities, Indigenous-led networks in the Amazon, Scottish Highland communities and engineering classrooms in South Africa. Their work shows learning that is changing how people act.

"For decades, environmental educators fought for opening another way of learning, ploughing the waves of complexity. Constellations of Hope says: your commitment has been fruitful, you are not alone. We want to prove that transformation is not a future aspiration; it is current practice." - Mario Salomone, Secretary-General of World Environmental Education Congress Network (WEEC) and one of the editors of the book.

Published today, Constellations of Hope, a report to the Club of Rome, is the first publication from No Limits to Hope, an initiative by The Fifth Element and WEEC. The book showcases transformative learning practices that challenge conventional education and point towards regenerative futures.

In many places, this way of learning is part of daily life. In South Africa, Mphatheleni Makaulule, custodian of Dzomo la Mupo, describes what it looks like on the ground: "Our work balances indigenous knowledge with Western scientific approaches, promoting a green circular economy that weaves together many ways of knowing. We teach and learn through doing, in nature's classroom."

Ana Rosa de Lima, Founder and Director of the Meli Bees Network in the Amazon, articulates the deeper shift this represents: "Education for this new era must reintroduce humans into nature as participants: curious, creative and in reciprocity with life. This is not about returning to an idealised past, but about remembering a truth modernity has tried to forget: that learning is a relational, embodied, restorative force."

This is the essence of what contributors to Constellations of Hope document throughout the collection. Knowledge that is born from communities working directly with the land and with each other. Educators and learners are already showing what becomes possible when pedagogy shifts from extraction to reciprocity.

Constellations of Hope is not a manual or a claim that systemic transformation has already been achieved. Rather, it gathers signs that transformation is being attempted, in many ways, in many places and by many people, often quietly and against significant odds.

"Our greatest challenge is not the crises themselves, but the widespread illusion of our own insignificance. What this book proves is that hope is not a passive feeling; it is an active tool for those who refuse that illusion and insist that education systems can become adaptive, life-generating forces. That refusal is where change begins." - Carlos Álvarez Pereira, Secretary General of the Club of Rome and co-editor of Constellations of Hope.

The book invites educators, learners, practitioners, policymakers and community organisers into an ongoing conversation about what learning needs to become if it is to meet the scale of the crises facing humanity.

In English:

Also available in Romanian: 

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Earth4All: Argentina offers a systemic approach to tackling poverty, inequality and environmental degradation by 2050 

A new report released today finds that Argentina could significantly reduce poverty by mid-century if it implements a coordinated set of structural reforms across the economy, food system, energy system and social policy.

The study shows that under a comprehensive reform scenario known as the "Giant Leap," poverty begins to decline steadily after 2030. The same pathway could also dramatically expand women's economic autonomy, accelerate the transition toward renewable energy, and transform the country's food system to improve sustainability and access to healthy diets.

The report, Earth4All: Argentina, developed by the Argentinian Chapter of the Club of Rome in collaboration with Fundación Alimentaris, applies the global Earth4All modelling framework to the national context. Using interdisciplinary research and system dynamics modelling, the study explores how different policy choices could shape Argentina's future and identifies combinations of policies capable of producing long-term improvements in wellbeing while respecting environmental limits.

The analysis highlights the interconnected nature of Argentina's structural challenges. Around 38% of the urban population lives in poverty, with more than half of children affected, while income inequality remains high, with the richest 10% capturing nearly a quarter of total income and the poorest 10% receiving only about 3%.

Rather than treating these challenges separately, the report examines how poverty, inequality, macroeconomic fragility and pressures on food and energy systems interact and reinforce one another. Through modelling of alternative policy scenarios, researchers conclude that coordinated action across key policy areas is necessary to reverse long-standing trends by mid-century.

"Argentina's challenges are deeply interconnected, which means that isolated policies rarely produce lasting results," said Gonzalo del Castillo, Executive Director of the Argentine Chapter of the Club of Rome. "Earth4All: Argentina offers what we call a "systemic compass" to help policymakers and society visualise how decisions interact and identify strategies that generate broader, more sustainable impacts for Argentina now and in the future."

"One of the main contributions of this report is that it brings together diverse perspectives and, above all, fosters dialogue in a challenging context," said Joaquín Gonzalez Cosiorovski, Director of Environment at Fundación Alimentaris. "Addressing complex challenges requires spaces for exchange where evidence, experience, and different viewpoints can be integrated into sustainable approaches."

The report simulates four possible development pathways through 2050, ranging from continued austerity and minimal policy change to a coordinated transformation scenario known as the "Giant Leap." The modelling suggests that large-scale, coordinated action across several policy areas is more likely to sustainably reduce poverty and inequality while strengthening environmental resilience.

The proposed strategy centres on five interconnected areas or "turnarounds": ending structural poverty, reducing inequality, empowering women, transforming the food system, and advancing a just energy transition.

"Earth4All was created to explore how humanity can achieve wellbeing for all within planetary boundaries," said Sandrine Dixson-Declève, executive chair of Earth4All. "Argentina's report shows how the global framework can be applied nationally, demonstrating that systemic thinking and coordinated policies can open pathways toward stability, prosperity and sustainability — not only in Argentina, but around the world."

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A group of experts has warned that the world faces a new food crisis and issued an urgent call for decisive and systemic measures to avoid mass starvation and societal instability.

The statement highlights a chain of shocks over the past five years, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, disruption to the Strait of Hormuz and the ongoing climate crisis, that have exposed the fragility of global food supply chains. Taken together, say the signatories, these shocks "constitute a systemic crisis that cannot be understood, let alone addressed, by looking at any factor in isolation."

The appeal urges municipal, state and national legislatures, together with the UN General Assembly, to convene specifically on the looming food crisis, and calls for:

• Dedicated international action to end the wars driving the crisis, including the conflict in Sudan, where 14 million people now face starvation, and a renewed commitment to peace as a precondition for food security
• Greater diversity and decentralisation of food production, with stronger tenure rights and political participation for smallholders, particularly women in low- and middle-income countries
• Diversification of the world's calorie sources to more of the 7,000 food sources already identified, given that just four crops — wheat, rice, corn and soy — supply 80% of global food calories
• Stronger local and South-South trade to reduce dependence on volatile world markets
• A transition of food systems away from fossil fuel dependency, given that renewable energy is now cheaper almost everywhere
• A shift from extractive to regenerative food production that rebuilds natural capital rather than depleting it.

The statement argues that regenerative, agroecological farming offers a proven alternative already practised by many small-scale farmers. However low commodity prices leave farmers little incentive to invest in the soil health, crop diversity and resilience that would protect them, and the world, from future shocks. Signatories urge courage and investment to implement such solutions, while challenging the agro-industry subsidies worth more than a million dollars a minute that continue to entrench the status quo.

Hunter Lovins, member of the Club of Rome and president of Natural Capitalism Solutions, said: "This is not a warning about some distant future. It is a warning about next year's harvest. We know what works: regenerative agriculture rebuilds the soil, the water and the communities that industrial farming has depleted, and it does so profitably. What we lack is not solutions, but the political will to invest in them before the crisis, rather than after. The window of opportunity is still open, but we must act now."

Signatories stress that the crisis is most acute in low- and middle-income countries but will ultimately affect everyone who depends on the global food system. "We can transform food systems now through modest, targeted investments," the statement concludes, "or we can wait, and be struck by the hammer of our own making."

The full text of the letter and list of signatories can be found here.

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How do you communicate a campaign message in Indonesia - a country with over 700 languages? What issues move Kenya's young keyboard warriors? What's the best way to spread a message in Malawi?

These are the kinds of questions that get answered when you bring a group of energetic early-stage communications professionals from around the world together to share their experiences - something that happens every year as part of the Club of Rome communications fellowship.

Since 2023, the Club of Rome has run a communications fellowship with the goal of increasing the diversity of voices covering sustainability issues and supporting early-career communications professionals from the majority of the world. To date, nine fellows from seven countries - Colombia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Zimbabwe - have spent seven months each embedded in the communications team, experiencing working in an international organisation, meeting members of the Club of Rome, receiving mentoring and providing valuable insights from their own experiences and contexts.

Fellows leave the programme keen to share their skills and experiences with their peers and other organisations locally, nationally and internationally. Previous fellows have gone on to host award-winning talk shows, win scholarships to prestigious study programmes, and work in sustainability organisations. Meanwhile, the Club of Rome communications team is continually enriched by the insights and skills that each cohort brings, widening our horizons and challenging our assumptions.

Its effects are felt beyond the team: inspired by the interest in the programme, which receives over 1,000 applications each year, it has branched out into a flourishing network of exchange and peer learning, the Systems Change Comms Network. This community of hundreds of communications professionals all over the world connects people working on aligned topics to share advice, tips and opportunities from the sector. And it doesn't just stay in the virtual world - we recently heard of the first national in-person meetup of the group, in Zimbabwe!

In just three years, it has become clear that the fellowship and network are meeting a real need and are truly mutually beneficial. Now, in 2026, the fellowship has seen its continuity secured thanks to a generous legacy gift. Late last year, we received the sad news of the passing of Keith Suter, a long-standing member of the Club of Rome and the president of its Australian chapter. We were honoured to have been included in his legacy, which enables us to continue the programme.

With Keith's expertise in and commitment to global affairs, it felt a fitting tribute to honour his legacy by securing the future of the communications fellowship, allowing the message and values of the Club of Rome to be transmitted further and further.

Thanks to Keith's legacy, we will be able to continue to welcome communications professionals from the majority of the world, share the experience and expertise of the Club of Rome, and learn from them, every year expanding our community of professionals committed to systems change. We are immensely grateful to Keith and his family for their generosity and support, and look forward to learning from, and with, future cohorts.

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Buenos Aires hosted the meeting 'Thought and action: the path to regeneration', which brought together over 200 global and regional leaders to address the polycrisis and promote new development agendas.

On 23 and 24 April, the conference organised by the Club of Rome and its Argentine Chapter gathered international experts, academics, decision-makers and organisational leaders to debate the challenges of the global polycrisis and explore concrete paths toward regeneration in Latin America.

The event marked an institutional milestone with the launch and consolidation of the Club of Rome's regional coordination space in Latin America, strengthening a network that seeks to link critical thinking, scientific evidence and territorial action.

Over the course of two days, the meeting proposed an integrated view of current challenges, approaching the crisis not as a collection of isolated problems, but as a systemic phenomenon that simultaneously impacts environmental, social, economic and cultural spheres.

Highlights included interventions from top-tier international figures, such as:

• Enrique Leff
• Mamphela Ramphele
• Johan Rockström (via audiovisual message)
• Eduardo Gudynas
• Carlo Ángeles
• Carlos Álvarez Pereira
• Eduard Müller
• Lucas Garibaldi
• Andrea Izquierdo (recent winner of the Frontiers Planet Prize)

These experts provided diverse perspectives on planetary boundaries, the socio-ecological transition and the strategic role of Latin America in a global context. A central theme was the urgent need to move beyond diagnosis toward concrete responses capable of articulating public policy, innovation and cultural transformation.

The second day focused specifically on applied experiences, solutions and proposals. Ongoing initiatives were presented regarding:

• Ecosystem restoration
• Regenerative agriculture, livestock and tourism
• Biodiversity
• Social and financial innovation

In this framework, the report from the National Engagement Program (NEP) of Earth4All in Argentina was presented. Driven by the Argentine Chapter of the Club of Rome alongside the Alimentaris Foundation, the report proposes scenarios and lines of action to address poverty, inequality and environmental degradation in an integrated manner toward 2050. The report emphasises that coordinating economic, social and environmental policies is essential for achieving sustained transformation.

The conference underscored that today's challenge is not merely to mitigate impacts, but to actively restore the systems that sustain life, incorporating regenerative approaches that integrate ecology with social and economic well-being.

The meeting also served as a platform to boost new institutional alliances. A major highlight was the signing of a cooperation agreement with the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) — an act featuring the virtual participation of its Secretary General, Mariano Jabonero, and the Co-President of the Club of Rome, Silvia Zimmermann del Castillo. This agreement aims to strengthen regional collaboration in science, research and public policy related to regeneration.

Furthermore, progress was made in coordinating with international organisations, academic networks and private sector actors to consolidate a common agenda for Latin America. Strategic partners and sponsors included the Cassará Foundation, La Ciudad Posible, Austral University, the Alimentaris Foundation, EcoNews (Media Partner), and Cervecería y Maltería Quilmes and Zafrán (Sponsors).

In conclusion, the meeting put forward a central idea: the current crisis is not only environmental, but civilisational. There was a resounding call to rethink development frameworks by incorporating new ways of understanding the relationship between society and nature.

The conference reaffirmed the need to build collective, comprehensive and long-term responses capable of addressing current complexities and paving the way toward a more just, resilient and regenerative future.

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The Club of Rome's discussion paper, Transformative Pathways towards Meaningful Collective Intelligence: AI in Service of People, Planet & Peace, asks a question that most AI discourse skips over: not simply how to manage the risks and potentials of artificial intelligence, but whether, for what, and for whom we need it at all.

It sets out the political economy behind current AI development — the concentration of computing power and data in a small number of corporations, the ecological costs of the infrastructure behind it, the uneven distribution of its benefits and harms, and the exclusion of pluriversal knowledge systems from how AI is designed and governed. It argues that a transformative approach is needed: one that questions the current trajectory of AI while building the conditions for its use in service of the common good of equitable wellbeing for all on a healthy and peaceful planet.

The Club of Rome is now opening a call for contributions to take this thinking further, test it against other perspectives, and surface ideas, evidence and voices that can shape a genuinely different direction for AI conception, design, co-creation and governance.

We welcome contributions in any format, including papers, policy pieces, blogs, videos and podcasts. To help structure the discussion, the discussion paper groups its analysis into a number of thematic clusters, and we ask that contributions relate to one or more of them:

1. The political economy and power structures behind AI
2. Data dispossession and sovereignty as a collective right
3. The ecological footprint of AI infrastructure
4. Labour displacement and its uneven distribution
5. Pluriversal and indigenous epistemologies as design principles for AI
6. Alternative, commons-led governance architectures

Contributions do not need to agree with the paper's arguments. Constructive challenge, counter-evidence and alternative framings are all welcome.

Contributions will feed into two kinds of outcome. First, they will inform a range of outputs: a Club of Rome publication planned for 2027, alongside blogs, podcasts, videos and other multimedia pieces published on the Club of Rome website and channels. Second, they will help develop concrete actions: proposals for policy, governance and practice that the Club of Rome, its members and partners can take forward. The publication and its accompanying outputs will be supported by a broader programme of outreach, including workshops, policy interventions and discussions at conferences and other events. This is so that the ideas gathered through this call reach audiences beyond the report itself and translate into practical steps towards AI in service of people, planet and peace.

This call is open to members, partners and our wider community. Alongside the open call, we are making targeted invitations to reach beyond our usual circle, in particular AI experts and Global South networks whose perspectives are often missing from mainstream AI debates.

If you know people or networks we should approach directly, particularly those working on AI ethics, AI governance or digital rights in the Global Majority, please send your recommendations to contribute@clubofrome.org.

Contributors may use AI tools for supporting tasks such as translation, copyediting or research assistance. The analysis, arguments and conclusions in a submission must be the contributor's own original thinking. Any substantial use of generative AI in producing the content itself must be disclosed in the submission. Submissions that are wholly or predominantly AI-generated, without meaningful human authorship, will not be accepted.

Please send contributions, or questions about the call, to contribute@clubofrome.org by 1 January 2027. Please follow the below guidelines for submissions:

Submit a 500 word abstract in a Word document, along with the contributor's name, affiliation (if any), and which of the thematic clusters above it addresses. Papers will be reviewed by a selection committee and successful contributors will be contacted in early 2027 with a request for a full paper.

Submit a word document with the full article which should be a maximum 800 words written in a non-technical style. Provide the author's name, affiliation and which of the thematic clusters above it is related to. Submissions will be reviewed by the communications team, and accepted submissions will be published on the Club of Rome website. Please consult our blog guidelines for more details.

Please submit a downloadable file and provide short summary of the contribution in addition to the contributor's name and affiliation. Submissions will be reviewed by the communications team on an ongoing basis.

A selection group will steer the process, reviewing contributions and helping shape how they feed into the organisation's ongoing work on AI governance. The selection committee is comprised of: Paul Shrivastava, Mariana Bozesan, Ryan Jackson, Petra Kuenkel, Liepollo Pheko, Douglas Rushkoff, Rica Viljoen and Junyi Zhang

For any questions about the call or the project, contact contribute@clubofrome.org.

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A group of leading scientists and scholars, authors, policymakers and institutions from across the world have endorsed A Time of Great Consequence: A Manifesto for Bridging Knowledge and Action, launched today by UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES, the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University and the Club of Rome. 

The manifesto argues that humanity has never understood so much about the transformations reshaping the Earth system, nor anticipated their consequences so clearly, yet the world's collective response remains profoundly out of step with what is known. It traces this gap to economic inequality, social fragility, deepening political divisions, institutions increasingly out of step with today's realities, and knowledge itself that has become too fragmented to act on at the scale and with the urgency required. 

The Manifesto asserts that there is nothing inevitable about this situation. Its central claim is that no single knowledge system, discipline or institution can meet the crises of this era alone. Meeting them requires bringing together the full spectrum of human knowledge, scientific, humanistic, cultural, Indigenous, professional and lived, and reorienting the institutions that connect knowledge with action. 

"The barriers to knowledge are political, cultural and gendered, and for too long, that knowledge has been produced by a narrow circle and directed at everyone else. This manifesto names those barriers and commits us to placing the social sciences and humanities at the heart of how we govern, for the benefit of all." said Najat Vallaud Belkacem, former minister for Education, France and an endorser of the manifesto. 

The manifesto calls for: 

• knowledge systems that work together rather than apart, bridging science, humanities, culture, Indigenous and lived knowledge to help humanity navigate an interconnected world 

• the conditions for diverse communities to deliberate, learn and collaborate across their differences, building trust and shared purpose 

• renewing institutions to learn with the people they serve, connecting knowledge with action and cultivating unrealised human capacities 

"Future generations will judge us not by what we knew, but by what we did with that knowledge. This manifesto offers a compelling vision for bringing together diverse perspectives, strengthening our institutions and turning understanding into the collective action needed to build just and sustainable futures." said Derek Walker, the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales and an endorser of the manifesto. 

Endorsers of the manifesto include Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and member of the Club of Rome, Carlos Lopes, Professor, Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town, and Janez Potocnik, Co-chair UNEP International Resource Panel, among other endorsements, spanning research, policy, civil society and international institutions.  

The manifesto is published ahead of the 2026 MOST Forum, taking place in Paris on 29 and 30 September 2026, where policymakers, researchers and practitioners will begin translating its principles into a practical toolkit for policymakers. An accompanying policy framework has also been submitted with the Manifesto to the Intergovernmental Council of UNESCO's Management of Social Transformations programme ahead of its extraordinary session on 1 October. 

The full text of the manifesto and the list of endorsers is available here.

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• A new survey of citizens of 17 of the world's largest economies reveals that 65% of respondents believe the economic system is rigged in favour of the rich and powerful
• Over two thirds (69%) want major changes to the economic system
• Just 31% believe their government will make decisions that benefit the majority of people long-term

People across the G20 want their economies transformed, but they no longer trust their governments to achieve this change.

This finding is at the heart of the Earth for All Survey 2026, Rebuild trust: Rigged economies, fractured societies and the case for change. This new report, focused on social tension and social cohesion, is based on a survey conducted in 17 countries by Ipsos on behalf of Earth4All. It finds societies that are remarkably united in their diagnosis of what is wrong with the economy, but that feel themselves more divided than ever, and with collapsing trust in those in power to fix it.

Seven in ten respondents (70%) say there is too much economic inequality in their country. Nearly two-thirds (65%) believe the system is rigged to benefit the rich and powerful, and 69% want major changes to the economic system, against just 8% who disagree.

Yet while the mandate for change is overwhelming, the trust in governments to deliver it has deteriorated, only 31% believe their government will make decisions that benefit the majority of people twenty or thirty years from now, compared with 39% in 2024.

That collapse runs through the wider social fabric. Two-thirds of respondents (67%) say their country is more divided than a decade ago, citing serious tension between supporters of different political parties (71%), between people on high and low incomes (63%), between immigrants and the native-born (62%), and between the climate-concerned and the sceptical (53%).

The report's co-author Kate Pickett, Professor for the Public Understanding of Social Sciences at the University of York, member of the Club of Rome and co-author of The Spirit Level, said: "People right across the income spectrum, in country after country, have arrived at the same diagnosis: that the system is rigged and that inequality has gone too far. The collapse in trust is deeply concerning: when people stop believing that their government will act in their interest long-term, it's corrosive to the sense of shared future that healthy societies depend on."

Support for democracy itself remains strong in principle — 68% say it is the best way to govern their country — but it is increasingly contested in practice. 40% say their country would be better off with a strong leader unconstrained by parliament and elections, a figure that rises above half in several upper-middle-income countries.

This survey is the third in a series of surveys conducted by Earth4All since 2021 into changing public attitudes to social and political system change. Owen Gaffney, the report's co-author and narrative chair of Earth4All, said: "This survey captures a gap that Earth4All has been tracking for several years now. The public wants systemic economic change, yet mainstream politics is consistently failing to offer it. When this gap is left unaddressed, it gets filled by whoever is willing to promise radical change first, democratic safeguards or not. The opportunity here is for a new kind of social contract, one that takes seriously the scale of change people are asking for and offers it through fair and democratic means."

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Open letter warns AGI poses existential risk to human civilisation without urgent international governance

A group of international experts—spanning science, academia, civil society, and global policy—has today published an open letter calling on the President of the UN General Assembly, the UN Secretary-General, and the Co-Chairs of the newly established Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence to convene a special session of the UN General Assembly dedicated solely to the governance of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

The letter warns that AGI is no longer a matter of distant speculation. The signatories argue that the international community must act now, before adequate governance frameworks have been overtaken by the pace of technological change.

Unlike current AI systems designed for specific, bounded tasks, more advanced forms of AGI are expected to be capable of rewriting their own computer code and developing objectives beyond human control. If properly governed, the letter argues, AGI could drive transformative advances in medicine, education, climate solutions and global peace. Left unregulated, it risks posing an existential threat to human civilisation.

Paul Shrivastava, co-president of the Club of Rome and one of the letter's signatories said:

"We are at a pivotal moment in human history. AGI is not a future problem—it is arriving now, and the international community is not prepared. Those of us who have spent decades studying long-term global risks recognise the pattern: by the time a threat becomes undeniable, the window for effective action has narrowed dramatically. Without proper international oversight of AGI, we risk an outcome from which there is no recovery. A special session of the UN General Assembly is imperative for the international community to address the issue head-on."

Jerome C. Glenn, executive director of the Millennium Project, added:

"Governing AGI will be the most difficult management problem humanity has ever faced. The United Nations was built precisely for moments such as this—moments when a challenge transcends borders and demands a coordinated global response. AGI is that challenge. The UN's Independent Scientific Panel is a welcome step, but it will take a year to produce its first findings. In that time, AI will have advanced by several generations. We cannot afford to wait."

The letter is signed by more than thirty leaders drawn from think tanks, universities and civil society organisations.

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