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Environmental issues in the era of digital transformation

Digital technologies are major catalysts for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and offer vastly powerful tools to help progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs set a goal to protect the planet so it can support the needs of the present and future generations. Every day we are seeing just how connected – and fundamental – climate change is to global development. As the effects of climate change increase dramatically, digital technologies can contribute to a more sustainable future. They have a critical role to play in protecting the planet and reversing negative trends. 

A host of public, private and multistakeholder initiatives emerged over the past years to develop and deploy infrastructure and technology solutions to help counter climate change and support green and sustainable development as well as to build capacity and help mobilize all stakeholders to inspire climate action.

This session will explore how technologies are used and developed throughout the world to measure, understand and fight the impacts of climate change and mobilize to keep the globe from warming above 1.5 °C. 

Panelists will showcase solutions and commitments for climate action across all layers of the global digital ecosystem (from infrastructure to applications to capacity building). They will also elaborate on the elements necessary to create enabling policy environments in which such business-led and / or multistakeholder projects and initiatives can flourish. 

Discussions will aim to gather and share good practices and offer replicable models.

Policy Questions 

The session will explore three sets of policy questions

1. How can existing and emerging digital technologies contribute to addressing climate change and how can they foster change in various sectors of the economy (manufacturing, trade, agrifood, etc.)? What initiatives exist and what can be done to improve them?
2. What can be done to reduce the carbon footprint of digital technologies (e.g. sustainable infrastructure, carbon-neutral data centres, efficient manufacturing, use and recycling of devices, etc.)? What lessons can be learned from various communities (e.g. indigenous peoples, small island states etc.) and existing initiatives?
3. How can we unlock relevant data held by public and private sector actors and collectively build a digital ecosystem of data and analytics to monitor GHG emissions and climate risks in real time while informing climate-safe investments? How could policy-making benefit from the analysis of big data to better understand impacts of policy decisions on sustainability?

Session Format 

The session will be organized in three parts, each part to explore one of the above-mentioned policy questions. Each part will feature a moderator to introduce the topic, two interventions from speakers as well as an interventions from invited discussant and input from the audience to bring in additional perspectives.  

Panelists

Host: 
Mr Krzysztof Szubert, Former Secretary of State / Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs, Poland

Segment moderators:
Mr Michael Oghia, Advocacy & Engagement Manager, GFMD
Mr Luis Neves, CEO, GESI

Speakers: 
Mr David Jensen, Head of Programme, UNEP 
Ms Lily Botsyoe, Community Engagement Lead and Board Member, Hacklab Foundation
Mr Pablo Hinojosa, Strategic Engagement Director, APNIC 
Ms Kara Hurst, Vice President; Head of Worldwide Sustainability, Amazon
Ms Maya Ormazabal, Head of Environment and Climate Change, Telefonica
Ms. Karine Siegwart, Vice-Director, Swiss Federal Office for the Environmen

Desired results and output

The session will identify case studies and policy best practices that can be shared and scaled up through the IGF network. The session also aims to identify issues and topics for future work of the IGF community and possible themes/subthemes for session proposals of upcoming IGF cycles.

Links to SDGs

SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation

SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy

SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities

SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production

SDG 13: Climate action

SDG 14: Life below water

SDG 15: Life on land

SDG 17: Partnerships