Climate Action Plan: Know About the Role of Digitalization in Tackling Climate Change

The time for a climate action plan is now. 

Climate change has severely impacted the world by increasing vulnerability, undermining economic gains, hindering social and economic development, and worsening the access to basic amenities and citizens’ quality of life. 

The findings from the UN show the Earth is rapidly approaching towards environmental ‘tipping point’. The scientists have even warned that we’re only left with a short period to keep global warming within a maximum limit of 1.5°C, and any increase beyond this will worsen the climate catastrophes’ risk.  Moreover, this impact might turn into a self-reinforcing cycle, affecting everyone across the globe. 

Role of Digitization in Tackling Climate Change

Achieving net-zero emissions has become a mainstream activity for reshaping the economy, and the acceleration of digitalization is a pivotal shift that has made the sustainable future a possibility.

Digitalization, information and communication technologies offer a great potential to address the worlds’ climate concerns. These can be used as enablers of the climate change action, assisting climate change monitoring and developing an effective climate action plan for mitigating its dreadful impact. Digitalization offers a great level of connectivity which can assist in monitoring data on a real-time basis, reducing emissions, leading to great societal impacts, exchange of ideas, and much more. 

However, there are a number of individuals and industries who want to know that with digitization how can they manage and monitor their building operations better, ensure their building operations are robust and resilient, how can they enhance their industrial operations, and most importantly, how can they do this while significantly reducing the emissions. 

And as it is observed, businesses usually face problems such as the insufficiency of data. To develop a robust climate action plan, it is imperative to have concrete data and technically advanced solutions, which gives rise to the dependency of innovation and digitalization to achieve the net-zero emission targets. And to drive climate change, businesses need to evaluate climate risk and incorporate climate change action in their business strategies.

Coming back to the question – how can digitalization help in preparing climate action plans? By streamlining and strategizing data and making smarter and informed decisions based on the data. Frontier technologies, meaning innovative new and disruptive technologies, can significantly help reverse climate change effects by helping identify the strategies to mitigate climate change. Leveraging such technologies to figure out new solutions for addressing climate change showcases an opportunity to accelerate and achieve the Unite Nation Sustainable Development Goal-13 and Paris Agreement goals. Let’s take a look at a few of such technological advancements: 

• Internet of Things (IoT)

The global proliferation of digitalization, information and communication technologies is a part of IoT (Internet of Things). Evolving and existing interoperable technologies form a global infrastructure enabling advanced services by interconnected things. Big data is also a part of IoT, with the support of which machines can generate, process and analyse a considerable volume of data, that too at high speed. This helps businesses devise practical climate action plans on the basis of factual data, thus accelerating the process of achieving emission targets. 

Furthermore, the affordability of IoT-based systems and IoT-enabled devices have the potential to benefit most countries, including developed and developing countries, by opening opportunities for advancement. Moreover, IoT is even responsible for industries offering connectivity-based services such as sanitation, water, finance and much more. 

• Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence in machines and computers autonomously replicates human intelligence processes such as reasoning, self-correction and learning. Moreover, today’s artificial intelligence systems have three qualities constituting artificial intelligence’s essence –  intelligence, intentionality and adaptability. In addition, artificial intelligence has the potential to be a tool in climate action efforts to separate economic growth from increased carbon emissions. Surprisingly, in the near future, even consumer purchases might be automated with the support of algorithms carrying the potential to sway consumer behaviour in relation to greenhouse gas emissions. 

• Renewable Energy Technologies

Renewable energy technologies remain significant and relevant in climate change’s discussion. Digitalization, information and communication technologies have the ability to facilitate greater adoption with the help of data capture, performance measurement, automated sensors or may be other mechanisms of renewable energy technologies, thus, enabling the creation of electricity, fuel and heat from renewable sources, like, wind, hydro, solar, etc.

And, that’s how digitalization can play a significant role in driving the way towards tackling the climate change and devising effective climate action plan and strategies.