It is estimated that digital technologies in the EU will represent 40% of greenhouse gas emissions and 10% of electricity consumption by 2030. Concepts as abstract as ‘the cloud’ often remove this reality from the collective imagination. Therefore, undertaking the digital transformation in which the world is immersed requires including an environmental perspective that guarantees compliance with international sustainability objectives.
Based on this need ‘Green Digital Conference’, which centered this international debate in Bilbao on November 17 and 18. As a result of this meeting, by way of conclusion, the ‘Bilbao Green Digital’ Declaration is now born, in an attempt to record that aligning the digital and ecological transitions is urgent and precise. In fact, a specific term is beginning to be used to talk about it: twin transition.
“This digitization is material, too material,” the document states. The event was organized by the Bilbao City Council, BBK, Globernance and the AI & Democracy Chair. The Declaration proposes a decalogue for a digital and green transformation, the result of the dialogue held by various national and international experts in this IX edition of Bilbao European Encounters. “Digital development aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda is possible if we take into consideration its social, material and energy implications. We are on time”, affirms the Declaration.
In these conclusions that are now included in the decalogue, it is pointed out to “act in accordance with criteria of digital minimalism: prior assessment of the relevance and need to develop digitization systems in certain contexts and applications, avoiding banal technology”. The incorporation of ecodesign criteria in the development and implementation of digital systems is also mentioned, including environmental impact assessment and measurement processes. “It is necessary to measure the impacts to be able to transform the systems”, it is indicated.
The Green Digital Conference also addressed the field of green algorithms, something that according to the decalogue must be promoted from its development, based on “data science and Artificial Intelligence to improve energy efficiency in processes and activities”. This vision must also be included, according to the Declaration, in the development of sustainable and energy-efficient hardware and software, through these green algorithms.
Greenhouse gases and digitization have a lot to do with it. One of the points of the decalogue calls for “optimizing the use of energy in digital environments” to reduce emissions. There is also talk of a ‘circular digital economy’, aiming to “promote the reuse of materials and electronic devices and a culture of repair”. In the field of energy, the decalogue calls for prioritizing renewable energies in digitization processes.
Lastly, people are put at the center and the need to “protect vulnerable individuals, populations, species and environments that may be negatively affected by the extraction of raw materials for digitization and energy production is stressed.” ”. Fair and equitable access to the benefits and burdens of digitization processes is another of the demands of the document, which concludes by inviting the promotion of “sustainable digital literacy among the population by fostering good digital consumption habits, especially among young people, who are strongly aware with sustainability and environmental protection.
The full statement can be found at this link.