Sun. Dec 22nd, 2024

Week in Review: The 68th IAEA General Conference

Sep 20, 2024 ,

Vienna, 20 September 2024

Katy Laffan, IAEA Office of Public Information and Communication

The 68th annual IAEA General Conference is coming to a close, with final discussions around possible resolutions likely to last into the evening.

IAEA resolutions and decisions will guide the IAEA’s implementation of activities in the coming year. The resolutions and decisions will be posted here as they become available.

This year, almost 3000 participants registered for the conference, including 2671 Member State representatives. With 285> representatives from international organizations and non-governmental organizations, the highest number for a General Conference. Delegates from 150 of the 178 IAEA Member States attended.

In his opening statement to the General Conference on Monday, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi laid out the Agency’s key role in global affairs. “Through the International Atomic Energy Agency’s unique mandate, we have the responsibility of addressing issues that affect all of humanity. Our priorities include reinforcing and preventing the erosion of a non-proliferation regime that has underpinned international peace and security for more than half a century; the ever-more-present existential threat of climate change, and the ongoing injustice of poverty, disease and hunger.”

Watch video of the opening of the conference.

The General Conference elected 11 countries to serve on the 35-member IAEA Board of Governors for the 2024–2025 period. The newly elected Board members are the following: Argentina, Colombia, Egypt, Georgia, Ghana, Italy, Luxembourg, Morocco, Pakistan, Thailand and Venezuela.

The General Conference and Board of Governors are the two IAEA policy making bodies. The 35-member Board examines and provides recommendations to the General Conference on the IAEA’s financial statements, programme and budget.

Scientific Forum and side events

The Scientific Forum on Atoms4Food: Better Agriculture for a Better Life focused on using nuclear techniques to support sustainable agriculture and reduce global hunger.

With an audience of hundreds of participants, including high level speakers and ministers from various countries, many sessions were filled to capacity.

In his opening remarks to the forum, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi outlined the Agency’s science-based contributions to solving the global food crisis. “The issue of food security has reappeared with particular intensity … countries do not need more speeches or policy papers to be convinced of these problems. What they need is solutions,” Mr Grossi said, emphasizing the tangible impact and practical approach of the Atoms4Food initiative.

Watch the recording of the Scientific Forum, and read more about the forum and see the latest IAEA Bulletin on Atoms4Food: Nourishing the Future.

Throughout the week, the IAEA and its Member States hosted more than 100 side events, showcasing the range of activities across the IAEA’s areas of work.

Coverage of the conference

In addition to the annually accredited journalists at the VIC, around 40 reporters from 20 media outlets attended this week’s General Conference, resulting in widespread global coverage with over 1,200 published articles.

For the first time, the IAEA also ran its own live conference blog, publishing over 50 short stories throughout the week, covering major updates, key facts and figures and side event news. Longer news articles were also published throughout the week, including daily highlights on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

See all articles from the 68th General Conference here.

IAEA events were also widely covered on the Agency’s social media accounts. Follow us on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads and YouTube to see the posts.

Photographs from the week are available on our Flickr account.

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Source – IAEA

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