Your support needed for UN International Year of Glass 2022

International glass organisations are coming together to support a resolution for a United Nations (UN) International Year of Glass in 2022 (IYoG2022). 

The International Commission on Glass (ICG), the Community of Glass Associations (CGA) and the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Glass (ICOM Glass) are united in the vision to celebrate the past, present, and future of the transformative material that is glass through the IYoG2022. 

Their aim is to underline the scientific and economic importance of glass, which, they say, “is the unseen heart of so many technologies and a facilitator of just and sustainable societies as they face the challenges of globalisation”.

An international programme of events is already planned for the IYoG2022, including:
An opening conference in Geneva, Switzerland in February 2022;
An international high-tech industrial congress in Shanghai, China, in April 2022;
An International ICG Congress in Berlin, Germany, in July 2022 (celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Deutsche Glastechnische Gesellschaft [DGG]);
International glass displays in art galleries and museums throughout the year;
A closing congress in Japan, in December 2022.

Additional activities proposed include:
A US Glass Day in Washington DC;
The ‘From Pharaohs to High Tech’ glass conference in Egypt, from April-May 2022;
Special issues of the most relevant scientific journals related to glass;
Special issues of glass magazines, as well as scientific and industrial journals related to national glass societies;
Hundreds of further activities globally, focused on a universal distribution of activities at all education levels.

The IYoG2022 aims to meet the UN’s Agenda 2030 goals, by:
Demonstrating the role of glass in advancing civilisation throughout recorded history;
Organising international glass science and art festivals, with workshops to excite and inform the public of this rich history, and highlight links between glass, art and culture;
Stimulating research on glass among organisations in education, industry, research and the public domain, including museums, to address global challenges of achieving sustainable and equitable growth, and improving the quality of life everywhere;
Building worldwide alliances focused on science and engineering for young people, while addressing gender balance and the needs of developing countries/emerging economies.

A formal presentation for the initiative was streamed worldwide on 3 December 2020 via YouTube, which you can view here. New letters of endorsement arrived following this, adding to the 1,250 previously received from 77 countries.

If you have not done so yet, please view and register your interest at www.iyog2022.org. There is still time to register, as the pandemic has pushed dates back.

In February 2021, the Spanish mission in the UN, supported by the Egyptian delegation, initiated the process of delivering the Resolution to the UN General Assembly (GA). They received support from UNIDO, the UN body focused on Industrial Development, which is currently editing a final draft of the Resolution.

The IYoG2022 proposal now needs the official support of as many countries in every continent as possible, to accelerate the process and guarantee a unanimous vote at the next UN meetings of the GA in March-April 2021. The organisers ask the main endorsers from every country to contact their Foreign Affairs ministries and their Permanent Missions at the UN to further this goal.