Johanna Pohl, Tilman Santarius, Steffen Lange, Angelika Hilbeck, Dorothea Kleine, hugues ferreboeuf, Mattias Höjer, Lorenz Hilty, Philipp Staab and Marianne Ryghaug
Presentation & discussion of the new report "DIGITAL RESET."
In this report we argue that digitalization, in its current and mainstream form, is rather aggravating than solving many of the pressing social and environmental crises and show how to reconceptualize digitalization so that it can support the quest for a deep sustainability transformation.
Time seems out of joint. The world society has experienced a centennial pandemic, the global thermometer has displayed a sequence of hottest years on record, and Russia’s war on Ukraine has shattered political order. Governments worldwide hope that digitalisation can provide key solutions for the pressing social and environmental crises. Yet, we argue, digitalisation, in its current and mainstream form, is rather aggravating than solving many of the problems at hand. What is needed instead is a deep sustainability transformation that fundamentally reorganizes the economy and all its sectors – agriculture, mobility, energy, mobility, consumption, industry, and buildings.
Our report shows how digitalisation can support the quest for such a deep sustainability transformation. It dives into the sectors agriculture, mobility, energy, industry, buildings, consumption and presents specific policies that can redress the risks and support the opportunities of digital technologies for the transformation. And the report provides a blueprint for the European Union on how to reconceptualise governance of digital services, Data, Artificial Intelligence, business models so that digitalisation contributes to achieving carbon neutrality, resource autonomy and economic resilience.
The report is the outcome of the project “Digitalization for Sustainability: Science in Dialogue“. This workshop will bring together researchers and practitioners from various European countries to discuss the proposals from the D4S dialogue project. The workshop agenda includes a brief introduction to the results, lightening talks on specific proposals and a plenary discussion.
