UN Conference “Harmony with Nature and Living Well” – April 22, 2025
A decisive moment to align our societies with the laws of life
On April 22, 2025, on the occasion of the International Mother Earth Day, the High-Level Conference of the United Nations General Assembly on Harmony with Nature and Living Well (Harmony with Nature and Living Well) will be held in New York. The day will be held under the theme: “Promoting sustainable lifestyles and holistic approaches in harmony with Nature”.
It will be my honor to speak there, at the request of the President of the UN General Assembly, in my role as Director of the Geneva Forum and Founder of Objectif Sciences International. My previous contributions as an expert in this context took place in 2016 and 2019.
A long-awaited—and necessary—paradigm shift
This Conference is part of a momentum initiated in 2009 by the UN through the Harmony with Nature program, aiming to profoundly rethink the relationship between humans and Nature. It is not simply about sustainable development, but about laying the foundations for a world in which human societies align with the laws of life.
The United Nations recognizes that human well-being is inseparable from the health of the planet and the well-being of Nature itself, and that this requires integrating other worldviews into public policies: rights of Nature, Indigenous knowledge, systemic ecology, territorial regeneration.
The 2025 theme: a guiding framework
This year’s theme – promoting sustainable lifestyles and holistic approaches – touches the very foundations of our shared future. Among the key questions to be discussed:
How can Harmony with Nature be embedded into laws, institutions, and economies?
What levers can educate, inform, and raise awareness among citizens about the connection to life?
How can international cooperation be strengthened around shared values arising from cultural and ecological diversity?
How can Indigenous and scientific knowledge systems be integrated into global governance?
My contribution: reconnecting human organizations with life
As someone from the field of purpose-driven entrepreneurship and impact economy, I will share in my speech several concrete approaches based on fieldwork and research:
How human organizations can draw inspiration from life (bio-inspired organizational charts, collaborative, regenerative, fractal governance...).
How participatory science, impact financing, experiential education, and the rights of Nature can serve as the foundation for a new social contract.
Why it is urgent that artificial intelligence be designed according to the principles of life, contrary to what happened with social networks.
My opening statement is available on this page
You will also find on this link access to the UN WebTV to follow the full day’s proceedings.
A series of articles to explore further
For those who wish to follow and embrace these topics, I will be publishing here in the coming days and weeks a series of articles inspired by my participation in this conference. These texts will present, in a pedagogical, illustrated, and committed manner:
Examples of pioneering policies (New Zealand, China, Ecuador, Bolivia, Thailand…)
Bio-inspired principles for businesses, cities, and states
Keys for educational, financial, legal, and ethical transitions
And concrete proposals for transformation at both local and global levels.
This conference, and the reflections it brings, are part of the explicit support for the Harmony with Nature program of the United Nations. They call on everyone to take part in this profound and inspiring transformation of our relationship with the world.
A hackathon to put Participatory Science to work for the Ocean
As a direct follow-up to this UN conference, we are organizing, with Objectif Sciences International and the Geneva Forum, a hackathon at the venue and in connection with the UN Ocean Conference in Nice in June 2025:
We look forward to seeing you all there!