UN Launches Virtual Worlds Day: Founded and Chaired by Radia Funna

June 25, 2024

On June 10, 2024, Radia Funna, CEO of Build n Blaze, made history by founding and chairing the inaugural UN Virtual Worlds Day—a groundbreaking achievement that positions virtual worlds and metaverse technologies at the forefront of global policy dialogue. This landmark event, which evolved from Funna's visionary proposal for a UN Metaverse Week, united experts, policymakers, and innovators from over 15 UN agencies to explore how immersive technologies can accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.

 

"Virtual worlds are reshaping how we interact, work, and learn," Funna stated during her opening address. "This event provides a crucial platform for discussing how we can harness these technologies for global good."

 

Creating a Global Platform for Responsible Innovation

The day-long convening featured panel discussions, virtual exhibitions, and interactive sessions showcasing cutting-edge advancements in metaverse technologies, with topics spanning digital inclusivity, climate resilience, educational equity, and the role of virtual worlds in achieving the UN's 2030 Agenda. The event demonstrated how immersive technologies can bridge physical and digital divides while creating new pathways for international cooperation and knowledge sharing.

 

As Founding Chair, Funna brought together diverse stakeholders—including government representatives, technology leaders, civil society advocates, and youth innovators—creating an unprecedented forum for collaborative dialogue on the ethical development and deployment of virtual world technologies.

 

Establishing UN Leadership in Metaverse Governance

Funna's successful launch of UN Virtual Worlds Day builds directly on her authority as co-chair of WG1 for the United Nations' first Focus Group on metaverse and co-author of the UN-approved definition of metaverse, adopted by 193 Member States in 2023. This foundational work uniquely positioned her to create a global convening that translates technical standards into actionable policy frameworks.
 

The event's success establishes UN Virtual Worlds Day as an annual cornerstone for international dialogue on immersive technology governance, ensuring that virtual world development remains aligned with human rights, digital equity, and sustainable development principles.

 

Paving the Way for Future Collaboration

Funna's leadership in organizing this historic event reflects her commitment to fostering responsible innovation in the metaverse space while building bridges between the technology industry and international organizations. The inaugural UN Virtual Worlds Day creates a model for multistakeholder collaboration that ensures virtual environments enable humanity's collective good rather than exacerbate existing inequalities.


Build n Blaze is the global authority in standards-driven digital transformation. Led by UN Special Advisor and global standards authority Radia Funna, we empower organizations to harness AI, metaverse, quantum, and emerging tech for sustainable, human-centered impact—ensuring innovation serves everyone, everywhere. Learn more at www.buildnblaze.com.

November 12, 2025
Build n Blaze CEO and UN Special Advisor, Radia Funna , has been invited as a featured panelist at the OECD COP30 Virtual Pavilion , joining an international group of policy experts, climate innovators, and digital transformation leaders for the session , Advancing an Environmentally Sustainable Digital Transformation: Implementing the OECD Recommendation on Digital Technologies and the Environment . The session will be held on November 14, 2025 and brings together global stakeholders to address one of the most pressing challenges of the digital age; ensuring that the technologies transforming our economies do not accelerate the environmental crises we are working to solve.​ A Critical Conversation at the World's Most Important Climate Forum COP30 has placed technology squarely at the center of global climate action. The OECD's invitation reflects institutional recognition that AI and digital technologies carry an environmental footprint that must be measured, governed, and reduced and that credible standards are the most powerful tool available to policymakers navigating this challenge. The panel draws directly on the OECD Recommendation on Digital Technologies and the Environment, adopted by OECD Ministers in June 2025 — the most comprehensive intergovernmental framework to date for aligning digital transformation with environmental sustainability goals. The session explores how countries and stakeholders across the digital ecosystem can leverage technology to support climate resilience while reducing AI's growing environmental footprint, discussing key challenges in designing and implementing environmentally sustainable digital policies and sharing good practices from around the world. The Standards Architect at the Intersection of AI and Climate Funna's invitation to the OECD COP30 panel reflects her unique position at the intersection of AI governance, environmental standards, and international policy. As Chair of the IEEE P7100 Drafting Group and architect of the world's first comprehensive framework for measuring AI's environmental impact — adopted as the foundational document for the P7100 standard — she brings unparalleled technical authority to the policy conversation.​ " If we get this right, AI won't just accelerate climate solutions, it will set the blueprint for how technology can deliver equitable, planet-positive impact at scale , " Funna has stated. " But getting it right requires measurement. You cannot manage what you cannot measure, and right now, the world is making trillion-dollar AI investment decisions without a common language for environmental accountability . " Building the Bridge Between Measurement and Action The session directly supports the Green Digital Action Declaration , agreed upon by 82 countries and 1,800 organizations at COP29, and the newly launched Green Digital Action Hub — a platform supporting technological climate solutions across 82 countries. Funna's measurement framework provides essential infrastructure for governments and organizations seeking to report credibly on AI's environmental footprint under these emerging global commitments.​ Build n Blaze's work on AI environmental measurement represents the kind of standards-based implementation support that the OECD Recommendation calls for; moving beyond aspiration to provide organizations with the technical tools and governance frameworks needed to translate climate commitments into verifiable action. The Build n Blaze Collaborative's Sustain-AI-ble initiative extends this work into a global platform for knowledge sharing, policy implementation, and cross-sector collaboration on AI sustainability. To explore how Build n Blaze's AI sustainability frameworks can support your organization's environmental reporting and compliance, visit the Build n Blaze Collaborative . Learn more about the OECD Recommendation on Digital Technologies and the Environment .
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