Advancing UN digital cooperation: Lessons from environmental policy and governance

The digital age brings great promise for human development. Yet, the benefits of digital technology can only be realised by mobilising global cooperation to close persistent digital divides and address the harms, risks, and uncertainties of digitalisation. To date, the global digital landscape is dominated by private technology companies and a few governments of technologically advanced countries, while less developed countries and civil society actors effectively have no voice. The goal of the United Nations’s (UN) Digital Cooperation initiative is to maximise the benefits and minimise the costs of digital transformation while ensuring that no-one is left behind. The UN’s Digital Cooperation identifies the main directions for action but also acknowledges that persistent governance gaps undermine its cooperation efforts. This paper argues that we can learn how to improve global cooperation to govern the digital space by drawing on experiences from global environmental governance. Based on an extensive literature review, I show how existing governance gaps in global digital cooperation can be analysed and addressed. Specifically, I focus on the implications for the UN and identify which roles and functions it could take. Online misinformation is used as a compelling illustration of how lessons derived from environmental governance can inform responses to digital problems. The paper outlines an agenda that can set UN Digital Cooperation on a path towards success in mitigating the uncertainties the digital future will bring.