World Habitat Day, observed on the first Monday of October each year, supports UN-Habitat’s mission towards transformative change in cities and human settlements – to leave no one and no place behind. Building on last year’s theme “Municipal Solid Waste Management” UN-Habitat is this year promoting the contribution of innovative frontier technologies to sustainable waste management to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 11: inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities. Going beyond solid waste this includes all waste produced by human activity (solid, liquid, domestic, industrial and commercial), which continues to have a devastating impact on climate change, public health and the environment. Frontier technologies, such as automation, robotics, electric vehicles, renewable energy technologies, biotechnologies and artificial intelligence, can possibly transform the social, economic and environmental spheres. They offer the potential of better, cheaper, faster, scalable and easy to use solutions for every-day problems, including waste management. They also present opportunities to leapfrog towards less efficient technologies and implement social innovations.

Let us join for enhanced cooperation and knowledge exchange on science, technology and innovation in order to influence the development of current and future urban areas in the world and in Kosovo, and also accelerate efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and address climate change.