SoLiXG:Digital and green transition
Twin transition
In response to climate change urgencies, governments are combining increased digitisation efforts with plans for a greener future.[1] For example The EU[2], Switzerland[3] and the UK[4] have issued policy frameworks promoting the "twin digital and green transition" as part of their commitment to Net-Zero. The idea of the twin transition as the road to a new regime of accumulation is especially pronounced in the European Union's Green New Deal, which stresses the necessity "to leverage the potential of the digital transformation" and raises the prospect of a "sustainable model of inclusive growth" on the basis of a circular economy.[5]
To achieve this goal, various technological fixes for a range of problems within the process of production and social reproduction are put forward. Investments are made in for example blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies because they "could be used in material tracing, promising to aid the circular economy by better maintenance and recycling”.[6] 'Digital Twins', virtual models based on large amounts of captured data, "can model, among others, traffic, to optimize traffic flows, reduce jams and slash emissions in the process.”[7] By adding a digital layer on top of common infrastructures such as mobility, energy, healthcare and education, the twin transition claims to make these infrastructures configurable and more easy to monitor. All in all, the role of digital technology in these imaginaries is to ensure the avoidance of waste and an increase in efficiency and transparency, which is associated with an increase in sustainability. What is often left out of such propositions is how the twin transition is itself resource intensive, as it relies heavily on so-called Artificial Intelligence for deciding what is efficient. It increases the need for computation, and therefore additional data centers need to be built which consume electricity, clean water, arable land and metals. The reliance on digital technologies for basic public infrastructures might also create issues with privacy and security, and reshape governance structures as dependencies on Big Tech players increase and decision making processes are informed by algorithms. Furthermore, the promise of green growth within a circular economy on the basis of digital infrastructures rests on the denial of decades of research that has clearly shown that the decoupling of economic growth from environmental devastation is impossible and at the current conjuncture represents a dangerous illusion.[8] The promise of the twin transition is to offer the prospect of a green reorganisation of society without having to question the capitalist growth imperative in any meaningful way. With the discursive fusion of digital technologies and the ecological shift, the prospect of a circular economy that is efficient, profitable and sustainable becomes the only reasonable response imaginable to climate change.
Anna (4/7): Thanks for working on it! I like it a lot and all the important points that came to my mind are included. Also resonates with our interviews.
Anna: Could think of making a keyword on Twin Transition and then having this text. I like it.
Femke reworked as Twin transition
- ↑ “Policy Brief No. 111 - Twin Transition for Global Value Chains: Green and Digital.” UNCTAD, July 2023.
- ↑ “Green Digital Sector: Shaping Europe’s Digital Future.” The European Commission, May 24, 2023. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/green-digital.
- ↑ FOEN, Federal Office for the Environment. “Long-Term Climate Strategy to 2050.”, March 2023
- ↑ GOV.UK. “Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener,” April 5, 2022. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/net-zero-strategy.
- ↑ "The European Green Deal." The European Commission, November 12, 2019. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:b828d165-1c22-11ea-8c1f-01aa75ed71a1.0002.02/DOC_1&format=PDF
- ↑ “Green Digital Sector: Shaping Europe’s Digital Future.” The European Commission, May 24, 2023. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/green-digital.
- ↑ “Green Digital Sector: Shaping Europe’s Digital Future.” The European Commission, May 24, 2023. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/green-digital.
- ↑ Dominik Wiedenhofer, Doris Virag, Gerald Kalt et al., "A Systematic Review of the Evidence on Decoupling of GDP, Resource Use and GHG Emissions, Part I: Bibliometric and Conceptual Mapping. In: Environmental Research Letters, 15(6), 2020