Avengers Assemble - Joining Forces for UNGA and Climate Week

All good things come in three – the Three Musketeers, The Supremes, Charlie’s Angels and of course Harry, Hermione and Ron. For this year’s UN General Assembly (UNGA) and Climate Week, three Spotify teams joined forces: Social Impact, Sustainability/Climate Action and EDI (Equity, Diversity & Impact) to gain insights and share perspectives. Our goal going into the week was to come back with new perspectives and connections all in service of making our work across climate and social impact more impactful.

Every year at the UNGA, government officials, business leaders, political change makers, and civil society representatives of all ages and backgrounds, from all over the world, gather in New York City to talk about the biggest issues facing society and to drive societal change. The city is also host to Climate Week, the largest annual climate event of its kind, bringing together over 900 events and activities across the City of New York. 

The Sounds Right initiative, where NATURE is an official artist on Spotify, took center stage in a panel at the UN and a nightcap with artists jamming with the ocean. We also co-hosted climate dinners, bringing together different perspectives at the table and truly inspiring guests like Sylvia Earle, Johan Rockström and Polar & Oceans explorer Keith Tuffley. Other highlights included a Climate AI Hackathon, roundtables on net-zero emissions with other tech peers and a battery-powered festival. 

Back in May, UNICEF and Spotify along with the rest of the Global Coalition for Youth Mental Health launched a call to action for businesses and organizations to come together, and call for leadership and investment in child and youth mental health. Therefore, it was inspiring to see a real emphasis across the public and private sectors on mental health and wellbeing, for the first time at the UNGA. We attended several roundtables on a breadth of mental health and wellbeing topics and also presented on a UNICEF panel about the transformative power of creativity and innovation in advancing the mental health agenda.

And in the wake of the UNGA, over 40 organizations, leading global brands, and foundations signed the Global Coalition for Youth Mental Health’s open letter calling on global leaders across the private and public sectors to increase investment in child and youth mental health, and promote mental health within workplaces and communities.

We feel so grateful for the week we spent at UNGA and Climate Week learning from some of the best minds in the world, and want to share our key takeaways. 

• The private and public sector are starting to come together in meaningful ways to address the global mental health pandemic. This is an issue that affects everyone and prioritizing the mental health and wellbeing of your employees, consumers and partners is imperative to having a healthy and high-functioning workforce and business. While there is momentum behind this issue, there is so much more to do. Work with trusted mental health partners to develop a plan that is authentic to you.

• The AI revolution domination in the news was just as present during Climate Week. The opportunities from resource efficiencies, increased compute power to improve climate modeling and many more areas, but also the extensive climate impact from increased energy and water consumption.

• The music, and wider culture industry is taking positive climate action – from more sustainable live events to artists using their creativity and voices to encourage more people to take action. 

We weren’t the only ones having fun and gaining inspiration though – all Spotifiers employees could take part in Climate Week with an internal Climate Challenge, local happenings and a live session with internal champions and MIT professor John E. Fernández.

Given our work with Heart and Soul, which is focussed on creating a supportive environment where mental health is central and resources are accessible to all, the spotlight being shone on mental health at the UNGA resonated strongly with us. And in the climate action space, where we’re focused on reaching net-zero emissions and leveraging our platform to engage users and creators, it was especially interesting to see how storytelling was in focus as an important part of creating more engagement.

We gained so many impressions and inspirations – the momentum of these hugely important topics was unmistakable. And whilst our work is far from done, it really was a moment to celebrate the progress we are seeing, and feel incredibly privileged to be part of.