Session
Sustainability & Environment
Digital Technologies to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals
Existing and New Technologies as Climate Solutions
Organizer 1: Xiaofeng Tao, 🔒
Organizer 2: Horst Kremers, 🔒
Organizer 3: Daisy Selematsela, 🔒
Organizer 4: Ricardo Israel Robles Pelayo, 🔒
Organizer 5: Zhao Ziwei, Consultative Committee on Information Technology of China Association for Science and Technology (CCIT/CAST)
Speaker 1: Horst Kremers, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Daisy Selematsela, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 3: Ricardo Israel Robles Pelayo, Private Sector, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 4: KE GONG, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
Speaker 5: Tomoko Doko, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
1. Speaker: Liu Chuang, Editor-in-Chief of Global Change Research Data Publishing & Repository, World Data System - WDS, Professor of Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
2. Online moderator: Zhou Xiang, Co-chair of CODATA Task Group in/for/with Developing Countries, Professor of Aerospace Information Research Institute, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Xiaofeng Tao, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Horst Kremers, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Zhao Ziwei, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Round Table - 90 Min
A. What are the key challenges and governance issues in leveraging digital and green transitions for sustainable development? B. How to strength the cooperations among multiple stakeholders, including governments, science and technology groups, to take full advantage of the twin transition for global sustainable development? C. How to establish a scientific policy framework, and how to provide policy guidance and regulation so that digital transition and green transition can work together to promote healthy and sustainable development of global economy and environment?
What will participants gain from attending this session? The participants will have a comprehensive understanding on the technology development in the field of digital and green transition in different countries. Meanwhile, through the presentation from speakers from different countries, the participants will learn about the key challenges and governance issues in leveraging digital transitions and green transitions for sustainable development. Our session will also provide a clear overview about the cooperation ways among multiple stakeholders, including governments, science and technology groups, to take full advantage of the twin transition for global sustainable development. And a scientific policy framework will be demonstrated to the attendees to provide policy guidance and regulation so that digital transition and green transition can work together to promote healthy and sustainable development of global economy and environment.
Description:
The UN has stated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that addressing climate change and achieving sustainable development is one of the most important challenges facing the global society today. With the intensified climate change and energy crisis, it has become a common consensus of the international community to promote green transitions of the global economy. The green transition aims to achieve sustainability, and combat climate change and environmental degradation. The digital transition aims to harness digital technologies for sustainability and prosperity, and to empower citizens and business. In 2021, CODES, ISC, Future Earth, the German Environment Agency, and the Kenyan Environment Ministry in response to the UN Secretary General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation. In 2022, the EU-ASEAN Commemorative Summit was held, the joint leaders’ statement was issued to enhance collaboration between ASEAN and the EU for a green and inclusive transition. Many people think of digital as being inherently sustainable – a recent example to support this is the replacement of daily commutes with remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although digitization has brought significant benefits, it continues to carry a significant carbon cost, such as owners of hybrid cars driving more because it is cheaper. Rather than treating digital and sustainability in isolation, a twin transition strategy combines green and digital functions to unlock huge benefits. To unlock their potential and to prevent negative effects, the green and digital transitions require a proactive and integrated management. The digital transition will be spearheaded mainly by the private sector due to its huge economic potential. To harness its benefits for greening and to limit its harmful effects, state and civil society engagement will be necessary. This workshop aims to foster dialogue and collaboration among multiple stakeholders on how to promote twin transitions for a sustainable, equitable and competitive future.
A. Invite international authoritative experts and scholars, leading enterprise leaders and relevant policy makers in the fields related to digital and green transitions to fully discuss the global sustainable development situation, and actively evaluate the opportunities and governance challenges encountered in the development process of digital and green transition. B. Explore the establishment of a global multi-stakeholder cooperation mechanism to jointly address the possible governance issues of digital and green transitions in global sustainable development. C. Propose a policy framework for global digital and green governance and formulate follow-up action plans.
Hybrid Format: All experts and audience will make comments and raise questions in regards to the speeches presented, guided by the moderator. There will be a live broadcast on the meeting, both online and onsite attendees will get involved in the workshop during the whole session. Besides, online attendees will have a separate queue and microphone which rotate equally with the mics in the room and is entitled to raise questions after each presentation of the speaker and engage during the discussion. Trained online moderator with previous experience will direct the online participation. There will be Q&A and discussion session to encourage every online or onsite participant to share their views to the issue. Audio-visual material: Organizers will explore the use of visuals (i.e. videos, PowerPoint slides, images, infographics) not just for the ice-breaker, but also throughout the workshop to animate the session and aid those whose native language are not English.
Report
On October 11th, IGF 2023 workshop #147 was held. Seven experts from different fields and countries introduced their views on green and digital transformation development. Here are key takeaways: We must realize the urgency of the dual transformations, take practical actions of using digital technologies to implement the UN SDGs, and cooperate in interdisciplinary, intersectional and international ways.
On October 11th, IGF 2023 workshop #147 was held. Seven experts introduced their views on green and digital transformation development. In the future, we plan to evaluate the opportunities and governance challenges encountered in the development process of dual transition, to propose a policy framework for global digital and green governance and formulate follow-up action plans.
This workshop focuses on the deep integration of digital technology with sustainable and digital dual transformations, open science, wildlife management, urban management, knowledge management, and other fields, which can help achieve sustainable development.
TAO Xiaofeng, Professor of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), the vice chair of Consultative Committee on UN Information Technology (CCIT), China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), chaired the workshop onsite. Zhou Xiang, Researcher of institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the member of Consultative Committee on UN Information Technology (CCIT), China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) chaired the workshop online.
In this workshop, seven speakers presented their views on the topic " Green and digital transitions: towards a sustainable future ", and the details are below.
Professor Gong Ke, Immediate Past President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO)， Foundational Fellow of International Science Council, the chair of CCIT/CAST, made a presentation on the three “Musts” for accelerating sustainable and digital dual transformations. He emphasized that we must realize the urgency of the dual transformations, take practical actions of using digital technologies to implement the UN SDGs, and cooperate in interdisciplinary, intersectoral and international ways.
LIU Chuang, Director of Global Change Research Data Publishing & Repository(GCdataPR), World Data System(WDS), Vice Chair of FAO OCOP Regional Organizing Group in Asia and the Pacific, Professor of Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGSNRR/CAS), presented the open science for green and digital transition. She took the GIES (Geographical Indications Environment & Sustainability) as an example of actions indicating the importance of open science and how the partner cooperation together to accelerate the SDGs in mountain areas, small islands and critical regions in climate changes.
Tomoko Doko, president and CEO, Nature & Science Consulting Co. Ltd., Japan, explained the wildlife management in Japan for a sustainable future. She analyzed that Japan has established a sound legal system for the protection and control of wildlife, and uses ICT technology to monitor the movement of wildlife and implement capture, contributing to sustainable development.
Horst Kremers, General Secretary of CODATA- Germany shared his excellent ideas and thoughts about digital twins in action. He pointed out that the challenges in process models and techniques for urban digital twin management, and put forward suggestions about action and achievement of objectives.
Ricardo Israel Robles Pelayo, Professor of Universidad Anahuac online, UNIR México and EBC, Mexico, noticed the challenges and commitments in digital technology and sustainable environment. He proposed a path for digital transformation based on the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA), including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, maintaining regional and global cooperation, ensuring fairness and justice in transformation, and coordinating relevant standards and norms.
Daisy Selematsela from the University of the Witwatersrand and Lazarus Matizirofa from the South African Department of Science and Technology and South African Science Foundation, introduced the open access repositories as an accelerator for open journal systems and enhancer for the SA-SDGs HUB. They pointed out the background of the goal of sustainable development in knowledge management and analyzed the institutional policies, practices, and initiatives that affect research productivity in South Africa.
After all speakers finished their presentations, the experts started an open discussion. Several key questions are discussed, such as the key challenges and governance issues, strength the cooperations among multiple stakeholders, including govenments, science and technology groups, how to establish a scientific policy framework and provide policy guidance and regulation. The experts mentioned that the more important thing is to accelerating Sustainable and Digital Dual Transformations.
Finally, we can draw some conclusions from this workshop. Firstly, it is now widely acknowledged that a green transition cannot proceed without a digital technology. Across the globe, ambitious targets are being set to achieve carbon neutrality and reduce carbon emissions by the end of this decade. The international community is united in its commitment to drive the green transformation of the global economy. Secondly, today's speeches and discussions have given us fresh insights into the future of the Green and Digital Transitions. We understand that different stakeholders from various fields, such as Prof. Liu and Prof. Daisy from technical community, Ms. Doko from private sectors, face distinct challenges and governing issues, requiring customized approaches to their unique circumstances. Lastly, as Prof. Gong and the other three speakers stressed, we must realize the urgency of the dual transformations, take practical actions of using digital technologies to implement the UN SDGs, and cooperate in interdisciplinary, intersectional and international ways. Our combined efforts are key to overcoming the significant challenges and governing issues we face.