Opportunities and Risks of Digitalization for Climate Protection in Switzerland

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an important enabler for a low-carbon economy in Switzerland. ICT has the potential to avoid up to 3.37 times more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than the amount of emissions caused by the production, operation and disposal of ICT devices and infrastructures used in Switzerland in 2025. In absolute terms, ICT will enable the Swiss economy to save up to 6.99 Mt CO2-equivalents (CO2e) per year, with an own carbon footprint of 2.08 Mt CO2e per year. This opportunity for the ICT sector to contribute to climate protection, however, can only be realized under optimistic assumptions. In particular, it is necessary that the existing technological and economic potentials are systematically exploited by taking ambitious and targeted actions. Such actions can be especially effective in the transportation, building and energy sectors, which have the highest potential for ICT-enabled (“smart”) solutions to reduce GHG emissions. At the same time, the carbon footprint of the ICT sector itself must be reduced by 17%, which is technologically and economically feasible due to efficiency gains

Digitalization, innovation and environmental policies aimed at achieving sustainable production

Funding for open access charge: CRUE-Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.Humanity is running out of time to curb climate change, and its effects are becoming ever more intense and harmful to humankind. A change in habits and production methods is required in order to slow the advance of this scourge. This research seeks to provide quantitative information on the nexus between digitalization and sustainable production (SP). The analysis focuses exclusively on the 27 EU member states (2015–2019), all of which are characterized by a proactive stance towards environmental degradation. First, a synthetic index is constructed using cross-efficiency, in order to assess Europe's position in terms of SP. This index is then taken as the dependent variable in an estimation of the effects of the different aspects of digitalization measured in the Digital Economy and Society Index, as well as the environmental and innovation policies adopted in the EU. The generalized method of moments is used to examine the effect of the trend in SP. Results reveal that the level of income per capita does not determine SP and that it is more amatter of society's commitment to implementing practices that foster SP. Furthermore, the evidence found indicates that Europe has not yet been able to break the negative link between GDP and sustainability, despite the positive impact of all facets of digitalization, innovation and environmental policies.CRUE-Universitat Politecnica de Valenci

INTEGRATING DIGITAL ECONOMY AND GREEN ECONOMY: OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Digital economy and green economy are the most important subjects on the environmental policy agenda in the last years. The first section of the paper examine the current state of thinking on the environmental impact of digital economy, especially of ICT, while the second section looks at what is known as the green economy and the most recent initiatives in this area. Both are paradigms that have become proeminent in the separate worlds of ITC policy and sustainable development. The integration between them leads to new paradigms and creates opportunities for sustainable development, also for economic recovery in the context of recent crises.green economy, digital economy, sustainable development, green knowledge society.

The synergy effect through combination of the digital economy and transition to renewable energy on green economic growth: Empirical study of 18 Latin American and caribbean countries

Tremendous effects on the global economy in terms of economic, social and environmental costs remind us of the catastrophic consequences of climate change and global warming caused by CO2 emissions. Therefore, accelerating decarbonization of the global energy system should be put in place to curb large amount of CO2 emission from hydrocarbon energy sources on which the current global value chain of production heavily relies.This study focuses on analyzing the effects of renewable energy transition, the digital economy, and the synergy between them on green economic growth in 18 Latin American countries. To capture the multidimensionality of these transitions, the Renewable Energy Transition Index (RETI) and the Digital Economy Index (DEI) are developed using the Principal Component Factor (PCF) technique. The FixedEffect Panel Threshold Regression (FEPTR) substantiates that renewable energy transition has a significant threshold effect on economic growth and environmental sustainability depending on the level of income and carbon emissions. On the other hand, the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) shows that both renewable energy transition and the digital economy have a significant positive impact on economic growth in all quantile groups. For the environmental sustainability, only renewable energy transition is found to have a positive impact in all quantile groups. From the synergistic effect perspectives, the CO2 emissions reduction is observed in both the low and middle quantile groups, but the economic growth promotion is only observed in a low quantile grou

Towards Our Common Digital Future. Flagship Report.

In the report “Towards Our Common Digital Future”, the WBGU makes it clear that sustainability strategies and concepts need to be fundamentally further developed in the age of digitalization. Only if digital change and the Transformation towards Sustainability are synchronized can we succeed in advancing climate and Earth-system protection and in making social progress in human development. Without formative political action, digital change will further accelerate resource and energy consumption, and exacerbate damage to the environment and the climate. It is therefore an urgent political task to create the conditions needed to place digitalization at the service of sustainable development

Challenges and opportunities of decarbonization for the economic recovery post-pandemic: The question of directionality in innovation policies

Countries face a double challenge of unprecedented scale consisting in drastically reducing carbon emissions in the time of a generation, while recovering the economy from the worst pandemic crisis in a century. Innovation is key in the response to this double challenge. Innovation policies are increasingly directed at achieving both goals, as governments seek opportunities for transforming the economic structure along with decarbonization. We raise the question of the effect of the direction in the success of the policies for the sustainability transition to achieve the economic transformation. We start by analyzing the processes of change in the economic structure. We identify three possible strategies of transformation: decarbonization, dematerialization and digitalization. Then we compare the evolution of the economic complexity of Portugal, which aspires to transform its economy, with that of three countries that are respectively reference in each one of the three strategies: Denmark, The Netherlands, and Ireland. Successful strategies evidence specialization in products that involve extensive and sophisticated knowledge, produced with high connectivity to other activities and with low carbon footprint. Based on these results and informed by the theory, we propose a set of conditions—related to the promotion of connectivity to growing sectors, high social return technologies and variety— that need to be aligned in the direction of the policies in order to increase their potential for transformative change.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

GVCs and environmental sustainability in MENA: Do digitalization and institutions make a difference?

The advent of digitalization has brought about profound changes in the global value chain, raising significant concerns about environmental sustainability. However, the environmental consequences resulting from the interplay between global value chain participation and digitalization have not been adequately explored, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA). To address this gap, our research delves into the impact of global value chain participation on environmental sustainability in 15 MENA countries from 1996 to 2018. We also investigate the moderating effects of two critical policy variables: digitization and institutional quality, employing the SYS-GMM Panel method and Random Effects method. Empirical findings reveal that participating in the global value chain has positive environmental implications for MENA countries. These results hold true and remain consistent when considering forward value participation linkages and oil-importing nations. Furthermore, we observe that the proposed moderators play a significant role in shaping the environmental impact of the global value chain. Specifically, institutions and global value chains work in synergy to promote environmental sustainability in MENA, encompassing both oil-importing and oil-exporting groups. However, the interaction between the global value chain and digitalization generates a negative net effect, which diminishes beyond a specific digitalization threshold of 10.23%. Consequently, implementing complementary policies becomes crucial when digitization is below this threshold. Additionally, our study supports the resource curse hypothesis for the MENA region, suggesting that natural resources contribute to environmental degradation. These insights offer valuable guidance for enhancing global value chain integration while preserving a sustainable environment in MENA

Innovations for Sustainability: Pathways to an efficient and post-pandemic future

3rd Report prepared by The World in 2050 initiativ