Can digitalisation solve the climate crisis? | Huawei European Talks

ZOEY

Hello everyone! I'm Zoey Zhang from Huawei.

I’m thrilled to be with you today and we are going to talk about how technology helps to tackle climate change and environment problems by reducing the industry's emissions and providing sustainable solutions.

Joining me to discuss this issue is Mauro Accurso. He's an expert in corporate social responsibility and technology, working in sustainability with the focus on the digital industry. Based in Madrid, he works with several technology companies on their climate strategies and emission reduction initiatives. He also supports firms in reporting their potential climate risks and opportunities.

MAURO

Thank you, Zoey! So good to see you and thanks a lot to Huawei for the invitation to participate in this discussion.

ZOEY

What is the role of the digital industry in the so-called climate crisis?

MAURO

So first, it's important to notice that the digital industry allows a lot of emission reduction in all cycles of the economy. But before that, they need to reduce their own footprint. So in general, the ICT sectors generate 1.5 of the total greenhouse gas emissions. That is not big compared to other industries – but it's going up, so it's expected to be achieving 14% of the total emissions by 2040 because internet usage is going up, smartphone penetration is going up, and the telecom networks and the data centres are consuming more and more energy.

So, to reduce their own emissions, the companies in the ICT sector need to first analyse their own emission professionally so they know really where those emissions come from in terms of the operations and the services and products that they produce. After knowing their emissions, they need to have a very bold corporate strategy and corporate target to reduce them. And those targets need not to be random, they need to be aligned with the best science available and also to be aligned with what we really need to meet the Paris Agreement. So once they have that, and in order to reduce their emissions, digital industries mostly consume a lot of energy – which is the main source of their emissions. So what they need to do essentially is to work with measures on energy efficiency and also to invest in renewable energy, so that the energy they consume comes from clean sources.

And another final step will be to push the value of change to also reduce emissions, so work with the providers and also, for example, manage better the electronic waste in terms of collection and recycling, among many other things.

ZOEY

Besides the footprint of the tech companies, how are their products and services supporting the climate action measures we need?

MAURO

In terms of emission reduction, ICT has the potential to reduce emissions by 20% until 2030. And that's very important if we want to decouple the economic growth from the emissions growth. In the industry, that's called the ‘enablement effect’, which means that in different studies they prove that mobile technologies can have a 5:1 enablement ratio compared to the footprint of the industry. So that means the emissions that the industry services or products can reduce in the different sectors of the economies are much greater than the emissions that their own industry produce.

The digital solutions that help fight climate change and protect the environment are growing exponentially and we are seeing innovation in every sector from buildings and transports to agriculture and manufacturing. Technologies like big data, internet of things, artificial intelligence are being applied to contribute to a low-carbon economy in many different ways.

ZOEY

Awesome! Can you give us some examples?

MAURO

Let's start with smart cities. In the cities we are seeing, for example, a lot of new apps like ride sharing, smart parking, pollution monitoring apps and we are seeing also a lot of innovation in fleet management. So for example, those can make trucks have a better efficiency – so that saves money and prevents a lot of emissions. And also the building sector is very important; technology can really help improve the energy efficiency of the buildings, for example, with application of smart cooling, and heating and lighting solutions.

Then in agriculture, there's a lot of initiatives to help farmers in their crop management, in their water usage – to reduce the amount of water they use – and also in weather prediction. So farmers can really know what's going to happen in their fields. So in that sense, mobile technology can enable farmers, for example, to better regulate and remotely monitor the irrigation and the soil conditions. That allows more efficient land use, decreases the quantity of fertiliser the farmers use, and in the end, it reduces food loss – which is very important.

Then let's talk about artificial intelligence that's been applied in many fields. For example, AI can help analyse and understand better the complexity of climate change and the models that scientists use to understand their impact. It can also support the efficiency of clean energy. It can also really help protect the ecosystem because AI uses algorithms for automatic identification of possible, for example, oil spills or it can also help solutions to process large amounts of satellite images which helps scientists see, for example, better what is in the sea and in the forest; and they can really know better what is the health of the ecosystem.

ZOEY

How can the EU Green Deal take advantage of all these innovations?

MAURO

For starters, I think it's really good news that the EU, among their action points, mentioned that to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 – which is the goal of the European Union – it's important to invest in environmentally friendly technologies and to support the industry to innovate. They also include specific initiatives, like for example ensuring buildings are more energy efficient, like we discussed before.

In general, I think the digital strategy and the climate action strategy need to be aligned if we really want a transition to a successful green economy in Europe, but also in the whole world. The private sector needs to be thought of as an ally from the government so they work together, since the industry is already, as we discussed, innovating to reduce their emissions and also helping with their services and products to reduce emissions in the whole economy.

So to sum up, I think technology is key for a sustainable future that can provide jobs, and the digital and the green transition should work for all, should put people first and open new opportunities for businesses.

ZOEY

Thank you so much, Mauro. Thank you for today and hopefully see you next time.

MAURO

Sure. Thank you very much!