No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Digitalization and Energy Consumption. Does ICT Reduce Energy Demand?
Abstract
This article investigates the effect of digitalization on energy consumption. Using an analytical model, we investigate four effects: (1) direct effects from the production, usage and disposal of information and communication technologies (ICT), (2) energy efficiency increases from digitalization, (3) economic growth from increases in labor and energy productivities and (4) sectoral change/tertiarization from the rise of ICT services. The analysis combines empirical and theoretical findings from debates on decoupling energy consumption from economic growth and from debates on green IT and ICT for sustainability. Our main results: Effects 1 and 3 tend to increase energy consumption. Effects 2 and 4 tend to decrease it. Furthermore, our analysis suggests that the two increasing effects prevail so that, overall, digitalization increases energy consumption. These results can be explained by four insights from ecological economics: (a) physical capital and energy are complements in the ICT sector, (b) increases in energy efficiency lead to rebound effects, (c) ICT cannot solve the difficulty of decoupling economic growth from exergy, (d) ICT services are relatively energy intensive and come on top of former production. In future, digitalization can only boost sustainability when it fosters effects 2 and 4 without promoting effects 1 and 3.
... One strand of the literature argues that the impact of digitization on environmental sustainability depends upon the response of energy demand to increasing digitization. The literature suggests both the positive and negative effects of digitization on energy demand (see, for details, Lange et al., 2020). On the one hand, increasing use of the internet and other ICT tools increases the more use of electricity. ...
... On the other hand, ICT investments substitute the demand for labour use and energy for production processes, therefore alleviating the burden on the environment (Khayyat et al. 2016). The actual association between digitalization and energy demand stems from four impacts namely "direct effects, changes in energy e ciencies, economic growth and sectoral change" (Lange et al. 2020). Thus, the net effect on energy demand and consequently on environmental sustainability can vary from country to country. ...
... Endogenous growth theories are taken technology progress and human capital variables as non-exogenous. Additionally, it is reasoned that digitization and human capital have robustly affect green economic growth, but also outcomes such as health outcomes, poverty rates, clean energy consumption, and environmental quality (Lange et al. 2020 andUsman et al. 2021). Based on endogenous growth theory we develop the CO2 emissions model and function form is: ...
This paper aims to examine the effects of digitalization and education on environment quality by using a dataset of BRICS economies from 1990 to 2018. Theories predict a positive effect of digitalization and education on environment quality but previous empirical studies on these nexus produced mixed outcomes. While our study has three core findings; mobile has a negative effect on CO2 in only Russia, while the internet has a negative effect on CO2 emissions in BRICS economies except India in long run. Thus digitalization plays a crucial role in fostering environmental quality in BRICS. Similarly, education has also improved the environmental quality in BRICS by reducing CO2. The effects of digitalization and education are significantly observed in mostly BRICS economies in short run. Regarding implications, this study recommends that the BRICS governments should improve digitalization in the economy and also repair the education system to realize significant green economic growth.
... In recent years, with the widespread use of the Internet, big data, cloud computing, blockchain, and other emerging digital technologies, the digital economy has emerged and become a new engine of economic development. In 2021, the scale of China's digital economy was 45.5 trillion yuan, representing a nominal growth rate of 16.2% year on year, 3.4% points greater than nominal GDP growth at the same time, and accounting for 39.8% of yearly GDP. "Digital industrialization" and "industrial digitalization" are constantly giving birth to new industries, new forms of business, and new models, and promoting the transformation of production and innovation processes toward network, collaboration, and ecology, which provides new feasible paths for industrial green technology innovation. ...
... In this context, energy digital systems supported by the Internet, cloud computing, and big data analysis can dynamically manage energy consumption by monitoring production, leading to an improvement in energy use efficiency [15]. However, economic growth and expansion of information technology production caused by the development of the digital economy may lead to a further increase in energy consumption, a phenomenon known as the "energy rebound effect" [16]. As for which impact direction is dominant, many scholars' research conclusions are controversial. ...
... As for which impact direction is dominant, many scholars' research conclusions are controversial. The empirical results of Ren et al. (2021), Langea et al. (2020), Sadorsky (2012) supported the view that "energy rebound effect" dominates and that the digital economy contributes to the increase of energy consumption [16][17][18]. While Ishida (2015) confirmed that the "energy efficiency improvement effect" is dominant, and the digital economy has reduced the energy usage intensity of most industries in China [19]. ...
The digital economy is pushing more efficient and greener production and innovation processes, as well as quickening the mobility of production factors, which would have a critical impact on improving industrial green innovation efficiency. Based on the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2005 to 2019, this study established a comprehensive index system to assess the level of provincial digital economy development, and adopted the SBM-DEA model including non-expected output to evaluate industrial green innovation efficiency, then adopted the Global Moran's I and Local Moran's I to test whether there is spatial autocorrelation, followed by the spatial Durbin model (SDM) and the mediating effect test model to investigate the direct impact, spatial spillover effect and indirect transmission mechanism of the digital economy on industrial green innovation efficiency. The results show that: both the development level of the digital economy and industrial green innovation efficiency show positive spatial autocorrelation; The digital economy not only has a significant direct role in promoting industrial green innovation efficiency but also has a spatial spillover effect; The digital economy can improve industrial green innovation efficiency by promoting manufacturing structure upgrading and stimulating enterprises' green technology innovation. The findings of this paper are helpful for policymakers to clarify the relationship between the digital economy and industrial green innovation efficiency and provide favorable policy directions for developing the digital economy to promote industrial green innovation efficiency.
... The modern mode of education which facilitate communication between teachers and students, add more flexibility, and add customized learning experience, is accomplished through Information and Communication Technology (ICT) (Lange et al., 2020;Yuniarti, 2012). ICT is an acronym for "Information and Communication Technology." ...
... Teacher must assess every learners' unique situation and decide according to their needs and goals, and while this alternative to traditional education is not for everyone, online learning is a convenient option with virtually endless options (Gusmida & Islami, 2017;Meşe & Sevilen, 2021;Rati & Rediani, 2020). This is a sufficient reason for ICTs to win global recognition and attention (Haviluddin, 2010;Khlaisang & Koraneekij, 2019;Lange et al., 2020). For instance, ICTs are dependable tools in facilitating the attainment of one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which is achievement of universal primary education by the year 2015. ...
Online learning resources have made a significant contribution to teaching and learning. It has been felt that many students are underutilizing online learning resources for various reasons. This study aimed to analyze the online learning resources available to undergraduate students, the level of use of online learning resources by undergraduate students, and examine the challenges faced when accessing and using online learning resources. This research is descriptive research with the type of survey research. 200 students were selected as the sample. Three questions were asked and answered. The research findings revealed that the respondents had heard of web tools for teaching and were familiar with web tools for learning. The institution provided free tablets and internet for students as well. There were enough computers in the school's electronic library with free internet. There were internet cafes in the school environment as well as Students used Smartphones to access and use online learning resources. The study results concluded that online learning resources encourage students in the academic field and assist students in future learning. Based on and conclusions, it is recommended that; Universities must support the distribution of mobile learning devices, the government must provide funds for the provision of bandwidth and e-libraries, and teachers must be involved in the use of online learning resources because this will facilitate the teaching process and encourage students.
... The relevant data are presented in Figure 5. The articles published in Web of Science that were focused on digitalization in energy consumption concerned both consumption in households and in economic activities [111][112][113][114]. In the field of energy production, digitalization is considered an important process not only from the perspective of the use of renewable energies [115], but also in terms of sustainability [116], energy efficiency [117], and improving energy production [118,119]. ...
... In energy production, the impact of digitalization on environmental improvement is manifested both in terms of renewable energies [122], as well as in terms of sustainability [123]. Furthermore, in the field of energy production, an important impact of digitalization is its contribution to ensuring energy security through its acceptability and sustaina- The articles published in Web of Science that were focused on digitalization in energy consumption concerned both consumption in households and in economic activities [111][112][113][114]. In the field of energy production, digitalization is considered an important process not only from the perspective of the use of renewable energies [115], but also in terms of sustainability [116], energy efficiency [117], and improving energy production [118,119]. ...
For this study, we conducted a systematic review of the literature on digitalization in energy production, distribution, and consumption over a sufficiently long period in order to reveal the trends and particularities of this phenomenon at the sectoral level. For the systematic review of the literature, representative articles on the subject indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus databases were selected using the PRISMA 2020 flow diagram. As a result of the systematic review of the literature, a significant number of articles on the subject of digitalization in the energy sector were found—both over the entire period considered and especially in the last five years—indicating the magnitude of the digitalization process in this field. The impacts of digitalization in the energy production, distribution, and consumption sectors materialized in the aspects of health, safety, and environmental improvement; process improvements; and cost reductions. The most important technologies used in the digitalization process include data mining and machine learning, smart grid/smart metering/smart home, Internet of Things, cybersecurity, and automation solutions (e.g., robotics, drones, and distribution automation).
... Moreover, due to the increasing population and the industrialization of cities, the increase in the need for energy can be seen in all parts of the world, especially in big cities [2]. Unfortunately, the source of the required energy is fossil fuels, and this leads to climate change and the emission of greenhouse gases, which is one of the most important and threatening issues for the sustainability of the environment [3][4][5]. Therefore, in order to achieve stability and preserve the environment the emission of greenhouse gases and the consumption of fossil fuels must be significantly reduced [6,7]. ...
... issues for the sustainability of the environment [3][4][5]. Therefore, in order to achieve stability and preserve the environment the emission of greenhouse gases and the consumption of fossil fuels must be significantly reduced [6,7]. ...
Climate change, the emission of greenhouse gases, and air pollution are some of the most important and challenging environmental issues. One of the main sources of such problems is the field of transportation, which leads to the emission of greenhouse gases. An efficient way to deal with such problems is carrying out sustainable transportation to reduce the amount of air pollution in an efficient way. The evaluation of sustainable vehicles can be considered a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method due to the existence of several criteria. In this paper, we aim to provide an approach based on MCDM methods and the spherical fuzzy set (SFS) concept to evaluate and prioritize sustainable vehicles for a transportation system in Tehran, Iran. Therefore, we have developed a new integrated approach based on the stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) and the measurement of alternatives and ranking according to the compromise solution (MARCOS) methods in SFS to assess the sustainable vehicles based on the criteria identified by experts. The evaluation results show that the main criterion of the environment has a high degree of importance compared to other criteria. Moreover, autonomous vehicles are the best and most sustainable vehicles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, by comparing the ranking results with other decision-making methods, it was found that the proposed approach has high validity and efficiency.
... The digital economy manifests digital industrialization or industrial digitization, which can promote economic growth and capital accumulation [26,27]. There is a complementary relationship between capital accumulation, economic growth, and energy consumption [28]. Therefore, economic growth increases industrial energy consumption in the process of production. ...
... (3) Digital economy →+ electricity consumption →+ total energy consumption →+ CO 2 emission. The production, use, and disposal of digital products; the construction and operation of digital infrastructures such as the telecommunication infrastructure and data centers; and the mining of digital currencies have greatly exacerbated electricity consumption [10,28,29]. A European Strategy for data, released by the European Commission in 2020, determined that the electricity consumption of digital industry is about 5-9% of the total global electricity consumption [30]. ...
The digital economy plays an important role in achieving the strategic goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” in China. In this study, we construct a system dynamics (SD) model to comprehensively analyze the impact of the digital economy on CO2 emission. First, we simulate and forecast the future baseline of the digital economy, energy consumption, and CO2 emission in China from 2005 to 2040. Second, we study the impact of the digital economy on CO2 emission based on scenario analysis of different digital economy growth rates. Finally, we study the influencing factors of CO2 emission reduction effect of the digital economy. The results indicate the following: (1) CO2 emission will peak in 2034. From 2020 to 2025, the cumulative reduction in energy consumption intensity will be 15.75% and the cumulative reduction in CO2 emission intensity will be 20.9%. Both indicators will reach the national goals during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. However, it will require more effort to realize the goal of the share of non-fossil energy. (2) There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the digital economy and CO2 emission. The digital economy aggravates CO2 emission mainly by promoting energy consumption, but it reduces CO2 emission by promoting the upgrading of the energy consumption structure and reducing the energy consumption intensity. (3) The R&D investment intensity and the environment investment intensity can strengthen the CO2 emission reduction effect of the digital economy. The results will be crucial for carbon reduction and provide policymakers with suggestions for sustainability.
... Yi et al. (2022) and respectively demonstrated that the digital economy is conducive to the reduction of carbon emissions at the provincial and urban levels in China. On the contrary, some scholars believe that the digital economy exerts a negative impact on the environment due to the energy rebound effect (Lange et al., 2020). The application of digital technologies requires energy and resources inputs, such as the manufacture, processing, operation and distribution of electronic equipment, which greatly increases energy consumption and damages to the environment for European Union (EU) countries (Park et al., 2018). ...
... This paper empirically proves the impact, transmission mechanism, spatial spillover effect and non-linear effect of the digital economy on green development using the data of 284 prefecture-level cities in China. Different from the research result of Lange et al. (2020), this paper believes that the hope of digitalization to promote sustainable development can be realized. The overall research conclusion has strong application value in the current era of digital transformation, providing a reference for emerging countries to achieving green development through the digital economy. ...
With prominent environmental pollution and depleted resources, how to coordinate economic growth and eco-environmental protection to guide green development represented by green total factor productivity (GTFP) is an urgent issue. This study aims to empirically evaluate the direct effect, indirect effect, spatial spillover effect and non-linear effect of the digital economy on green development using the data of 284 prefecture-level cities in China. The empirical results indicate that: (1) the digital economy significantly improves GTFP, which is still valid after testing for robustness, including introducing instrumental variables, taking the “broadband China” pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment, changing core explanatory variables and dependent variables, and changing the sample size; (2) the influence of the digital economy on GTFP is characterized by significant heterogeneity among resource dependence, geographical location, financial development level and openness level; (3) the mechanism analysis shows that the digital economy promotes GTFP by green technological innovation, industrial structure upgrading and energy conservation; (4) the spatial econometric models indicate that the digital economy significantly enhances GTFP of neighboring cities; (5) there is a non-linear relationship between the digital economy and GTFP using the threshold model. The findings could provide references for policymakers to promote urban green development.
... The acceleration of digital industries and the digital transformation of traditional industries increase the demand for computing power, bring about a wider range of 5G applications, and the development of information infrastructure. This may lead to the energy demand growth and energy rebound effect (RE), which is defined as the additional energy demand responses to energy efficiency improvement compared with the expected energy savings [3]. Preventing the energy rebound effect of digital technology has become an important task that cannot be ignored in the process of achieving carbon neutrality [4]. ...
... They found that digital infrastructure promotes an increase in the scale of energy consumption. Lange et al. [3] also found that ICT increases energy demand via a growing ICT sector, rebounds, and economic growth. Different from their attention on the mean impact of digital infrastructure on energy consumption, we explore the impact of digital development at different quantiles of energy consumption. ...
... Liu, Pengcheng and Liu, J. (2020) further showed that for every 1% increase in the level of information technology development, China's sulfur dioxide emissions are reduced by 2.866% [22] . Ishida (2015) [23], Lange et al. (2020) [24] , and Kumar & Manas (2017) [25] using data from Japan, Germany, and India, found that as ICT investment increased, it improved energy use e ciency and reduced energy consumption intensity, which in turn helped to achieve CO2 emission reductions. ...
... Liu, Pengcheng and Liu, J. (2020) further showed that for every 1% increase in the level of information technology development, China's sulfur dioxide emissions are reduced by 2.866% [22] . Ishida (2015) [23], Lange et al. (2020) [24] , and Kumar & Manas (2017) [25] using data from Japan, Germany, and India, found that as ICT investment increased, it improved energy use e ciency and reduced energy consumption intensity, which in turn helped to achieve CO2 emission reductions. ...
Information and Communication Technology plays an essential role in affecting CO2 emissions and promoting green and sustainable development. This paper estimates the CO2 emissions of 259 cities in China from 2011 to 2017 and uses the spatial Durbin model to empirically analyze the spatial spillover effect of the level of ICT development affecting regional CO2 emissions and to further analyze its direct, indirect, and total effects. The study finds that: (1) There is a spatial correlation between regional CO2 emissions and ICT development level, and the CO2 emissions of Chinese cities show high-high or low-low clustering characteristics; (2) The level of ICT development can significantly increase CO2 emissions in the region and significantly suppress CO2 emissions in neighboring regions, and after a series of robustness tests, the findings of the study still hold; (3) The mechanism of action shows that ICT can influence regional CO2 emissions through the three elements included in it: infrastructure, application level, and service level; (4) The effect of ICT on regional CO2 emissions varies by city resource allocation and level of science and education.
... For example, in the communications industry, digital transformation is accompanied by huge energy consumption for the production, use, and disposal processes of related products. Lange et al. [25] contended that digitalization has both inhibitory and enhancing effects on energy consumption. The inhibitory effect is manifested through digitalization's ability to reduce the intensity of resource inputs by improving resource utilization efficiency and optimizing industrial structure. ...
Based on empirical analysis of Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2018, we demonstrate that enterprise digital transformation has a significant impact on improving capacity utilization. Digital transformation is a significant driving force behind enterprise-specific production and innovation. Furthermore, enterprise innovation and enterprise-specialized production play a mediating role in the impact of enterprise digital transformation on capacity utilization. Based on these baseline findings, heterogenous analysis reveals that the impact of digital transformation on capacity utilization is significant for firms with larger capital scales or poor governance and manufacturing abilities. However, it is less important for enterprises with small- and medium-sized capital scales or with more standardized governance, as well as non-manufacturing (service) enterprises.
... However, similar to financial inclusion, ICT applications may harm environmental quality by increasing fossil fuel energy use (Batool et al., 2022). Thus, it is critical to expedite the transition to low-carbon energy sources by leveraging the favorable effects of ICT (and thus that of digitalization) (Lange et al., 2020). To maximize harvest from renewable sources, the deployment of ICT is optimal during periods of peak availability, and ICT may also assist in simplifying the storage of power produced from renewable sources. ...
This study investigates the long-term relationship between financial inclusion, infrastructure for information and communication technology, fossil fuel usage, participatory democracy, and renewable energy use in G7 countries. Based on a cointegration test with structural breakdowns, our results give considerable evidence of a long-term relationship between these variables. The majority of quantiles demonstrate that financial inclusion has a negative and substantial effect on renewable energy usage. On the other hand, the coefficient for information and communication technology infrastructure is positive and statistically significant at all quantiles, while the coefficient for fossil fuel consumption effects renewable energy use adversely and is statistically significant at all quantiles. The findings of the Granger non-causality test suggest bidirectional causality between renewable energy usage and information and communication technology infrastructure and financial inclusion, whereas fossil fuel use and participatory democracy exhibit unidirectional causality. On the basis of these results, we recommend government policies to incentivize people and businesses to embrace renewable energy, financial innovation to help the energy transition process, and the dissemination of knowledge about renewable energy sources, particularly in rural regions. Citizens' engagement is also essential, and decentralization and enhanced local decision-making may facilitate this. This research underscores the need for a coordinated strategy combining financial institutions, governments, and individuals in order to transition to a low-carbon economy.
... Information and Communication Technology (ICT) advancement seems to be gathering speed for data processing and more efficiency in all aspects of human life. In education, the advancement in ICT has aided management and administration, assisted instructional delivery, and facilitated learning opportunities (Ali & Maksum, 2020;Lange et al., 2020). In this digital era, education makes learners acquire the appropriate and relevant knowledge, attitude and skills that lead to understanding and functioning well in their digitally dominated environment (Azizah et al., 2020;Putrawangsa & Hasanah, 2018;S. ...
In this digital era, education makes learners acquire the appropriate and relevant knowledge, attitude and skills that lead to understanding and functioning well in their digitally dominated environment. This research explored how exemplar lecturers developed competencies and skills in integrating technology for instruction. A qualitative hermeneutic phenomenology design was used for the study. In all, 20 lecturers (exemplars) out of 327 lecturers from a teacher education university in Ghana formed the sample and were interviewed by one of the researchers for ten weeks. Data were analysed using thematic coding, structural coding, pattern coding and focused coding in arriving at exemplars' experiences. The findings show that exemplars integrated ICTs such as Google Application for Educators (GAFE), Microsoft Office and Education tools, and other open-source software to make them stand out among their colleagues, as exemplars. Exemplars acquired their integration competencies through individual learning, colleagues, and online materials. The findings underscored the need for institutional facilities provision and support to deepen ICT integration in universities. Based on the results, recommendations, implications, and limitations are discussed.
... Digitization breaks regional boundaries and time constraints, accelerates the flow of production factors, reduces energy consumption due to spatial and temporal factors in production and life, reduces energy consumption rates, and curbs carbon emissions. For example, some scholars have pointed out that the development of the digital economy is beneficial for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (Murshed, 2020;Wang et al., 2022a) and fossil fuel consumption (Lange et al., 2020). King et al. (2021) also pointed out that the development of the digital economy, especially the application of information and communications technology (ICT) devices, promotes the health of the local environment and can improve environmental problems, such as air pollution. ...
China’s rapid industrialization and urbanization have led to ecological and environmental problems, particularly air pollution. Digitalization has become a key component in high-quality development to overcome the previous high-energy and high-pollution development model. However, a certain degree of “green blindness” exists in the digital development process, and the impact on air pollution is not always positive. Therefore, the impact of the digital economy on air pollution is worth exploring. In this study, the authors examines the emissions increase and reduction effect mechanisms of the digital economy on air pollution using panel data in 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020. The two-tier stochastic frontier model showed that the interaction between the emissions increase effect and emissions reduction effect of the digital economy reduced the actual air pollution emissions level below the frontier level by 0.15%, on average. Overall air pollution level is characterized prominently by emission reduction, owing to the asymmetric bilateral effect of the digital economy. Second, the time trend characteristics of the net effect of the digital economy on air pollution emissions showed a wave-like change; the average values of the net effect in the three major regions (i.e., the east, central, and west) were all negative. Third, along with the development of digital economy, human capital levels, and general economic levels, the emissions reduction effect of the digital economy on air pollution has strengthened, such that the net effect became positive to negative. However, significant heterogeneous characteristics were noted in the effects of the digital economy on air pollution under different levels of digital economy development, human capital, and economic development. This study provides practical paths for air pollution management, strengthening inter-regional environmental synergy management and high-quality economic development.
... On the other hand, the adoption of ICT and energy complement each other (the adoption of ICT is complementary with energy), which can promote energy input to replace traditional factors such as labor and capital, thus increasing the energy intensity of enterprises [31]. ICT can help enterprises increase output while consuming less energy [32]. Based on the above analysis, this paper proposes the following hypotheses: ...
Energy conservation and emission reduction are important ways to cope with global warming. An analysis of energy conservation and emission reduction from the perspective of network infrastructure construction provides an important perspective for the study of sustainable development. Based on the research sample of 263 cities in China from 2006 to 2019, and taking the policy of “Broadband China” as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper uses the double difference model to evaluate the impact of network infrastructure construction on energy conservation and emission reduction. The results show that (1) the construction of network infrastructure can significantly improve the energy utilization rate and reduce carbon emissions intensity, which helps to promote energy conservation and emission reduction. (2) From the perspective of a functional mechanism, on the one hand, network infrastructure construction affects energy conservation and emission reduction through micro-mechanisms such as green technology innovation and energy efficiency. On the other hand, network infrastructure construction also drives the development of the Internet and the digital economy, and promotes energy conservation and emission reduction through macro-mechanisms such as industrial structure and financial development. (3) The heterogeneity analysis shows that network infrastructure construction in non-resource-based cities, eastern regions and low-carbon cities has a greater impact on energy conservation and emission reduction. This study provides a new perspective for achieving low-carbon development goals.
... Park et al., 24 studying European Union countries, proposed that ICT has a long-term relationship with increased carbon emissions. Lange et al. 25 pointed out that the energy rebound effect associated with ICT development should not be ignored. After ICT is applied to the production sector to improve energy utilization efficiency, it will increase energy use, which will aggravate environmental pollution. ...
Increasing carbon efficiency is a key path to sustainable development, and information and communication technology (ICT) may help realize a win-win situation for the economy and the environment. However, the existing literature on the impact of ICT on carbon efficiency is relatively shallow. Using a database of Chinese cities, this study empirically explores the role of ICT in carbon efficiency from the aspects of direct impact, mediation effect, and threshold effect. Results show that ICT significantly improves the carbon efficiency represented by single-factor and total-factor carbon efficiency. The mediation effect indicates that technological innovation, industrial structure upgrading, and external openness are effective ways for ICT to play its role. The threshold model shows that the promoting effect between the two depends on the local institutional environment. Further heterogeneity analysis shows that ICT plays a more remarkable role in promoting carbon efficiency in eastern regions. This study provides evidence for aggressively digitizing economies to shift towards a low-carbon economy. Policymakers are encouraged to consider better integrating ICTs into sustainable development strategies.
... The substitution effect refers to the energy consumption directly increased by the irrational application of digital technology, and the energy demand indirectly caused by the development of the digital economy. The appearance of the income effect often induces a substitution effect, and the improvement of the digital levels will also stimulate energy demand simultaneously [21]. The combination of income effects and substitution effects has a mixed impact on carbon emissions. ...
Digitalization is an excellent opportunity for the manufacturing industry all over the world to improve the core competitiveness and break through the “low-end locking” dilemma. However, it is not clear whether the digitalization of the manufacturing industry has positive ecological and environmental benefits under the resource and environmental constraints. To answer this question, we use the data from the world input–output database (WIOD) to investigate the impact of manufacturing input digitalization on carbon emission intensity by an extended analysis. The results show that the input digitalization of the manufacturing industry has mixed effects on reducing carbon emission intensity. The productive input digitalization can reduce carbon emission intensity, but the distributional input digitalization may increase carbon emission intensity. Non-pollution-intensive manufacturing and high-input digital manufacturing have stronger carbon emission reduction effects than the other industry sectors. From the perspective of input sources, input digitalization from domestic sources has a significant inhibitory effect on the carbon emission intensity. In contrast, input digitalization from foreign sources may increase carbon emission intensity.
... Environmental rebound effects have been well categorized in the ICT-related research literature. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Although there is no general agreed-upon taxonomy for rebound effects, most of the literature distinguishes between direct and indirect rebound effects. Direct rebound effects occur for the same good or service that had originally become more efficient and because the efficiency gains made it cheaper and thus encouraged an increase in demand. ...
Innovations and efficiencies in digital technology have lately been depicted as paramount in the green transition to enable the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, both in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector and the wider economy. This, however, fails to adequately account for rebound effects that can offset emission savings and, in the worst case, increase emissions. In this perspective, we draw on a transdisciplinary workshop with 19 experts from carbon accounting, digital sustainability research, ethics, sociology, public policy, and sustainable business to expose the challenges of addressing rebound effects in digital innovation processes and associated policy. We utilize a responsible innovation approach to uncover potential ways forward for incorporating rebound effects in these domains, concluding that addressing ICT-related rebound effects ultimately requires a shift from an ICT efficiency-centered perspective to a "systems thinking" model, which aims to understand efficiency as one solution among others that requires constraints on emissions for ICT environmental savings to be realized.
... In addition, for the measurement of the interaction between the two systems, we choose the commonly used coupling coordination model.Second, the study concludes that the interaction between digital economy and ecological e ciency in prefecture-level cities is enhanced in China, and there are obvious characteristics of spatial and temporal heterogeneity. This con rms that the digital economy has the characteristics of openness, time-space intersection and economic sharing, and has a signi cant spatial spillover effect on the ecological environment(Lange et al., 2020;Anagnostopoulos et al., 2021). The result is a con rmation and extension of previous research. ...
The synergy of the digital economy and ecological efficiency is the foundation for achieving a win-win situation for the economy and the environment in the post-epidemic era. It is the catalyst for sustainable economic growth and high-quality development in China. Specifically, the study applies modified E-G index, super-efficiency slacks-based measure (SBM) with Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) index, entropy weight Topsis, coupling coordination degree and other models to explore the spatial-temporal heterogeneity of the coupling between digital economy and ecological efficiency. In addition, the internal mechanism of coupling is analyzed from the dimensions of industrial collaboration, technological innovation, environmental regulation, and other aspects. The results show that the coupling between digital economy and ecological efficiency is an upward trend from imbalance to synergy in China on the whole. The distribution of the coupling at the synergistic level expanded from point-like to band-like, and the pattern of spreading from east to the center and west was significant. The number of cities in the transitional level decreased significantly. It can be seen that the jump phenomenon and linkage effect of coupling in space and time are significant. Additionally, the absolute difference among cities has expanded. Although the coupling in the west has the fastest growth rate, the coupling of the east and resource-based cities still has obvious advantages. Therefore, the interaction of systems has not reached the ideal coordinated state, and a benign interaction pattern has yet to be formed. Industrial synergy, industrial upgrading, government support, economic foundation, and spatial quality all show positive effect on promoting the coupling of digital economy and ecological efficiency; technological innovation reflects a certain lag; environmental regulation that has not been fully exerted needs to be used scientifically and accurately. Among them, the positive effects of government support and spatial quality performed better in the east and non-resource-based cities. Because of the continuous optimization of the industrial level, the coupling between the west and resource-based cities has achieved better dividends, but the spatial quality needs to be further improved. Therefore, the efficient coordination of China's digital economy and ecological efficiency urgently needs scientific, reasonable, localized, and distinctive manner.
... Secondly, the digital economy can improve GTFP via digital industrialization, including the digital product manufacturing industry, the digital product service industry, the digital technology application industry and the digital factor driving industry, providing digital technology, services, products, infrastructure and solutions for industrial digitalization. The digital economy can promote the GTFP by integrating digital technologies [38]. Taking the production mode as an example, digital technologies, like the Internet and 5G, can accomplish the information interaction between people and machines, provide the manufacturing industry with a green intelligent closed-loop channel, allow enterprises to realize the optimal control of machines in the production process and enhance the resource utilization efficiency [39]. ...
With the new generation of technological revolution, the digital economy has progressively become a key driver of global economic development. In this context, how to promote green economic growth and improve green total factor productivity (GTFP) with the help of the digital economy is an important issue that urgently needs empirical research. We adopted the panel data of 278 Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2011 to 2020 to test whether the digital economy improves the GTFP through the Gaussian Mixed Model (GMM) dynamic panel model. The moderating effect model has been used to explore the impact mechanism from the perspectives of industrial structure upgrade and environmental regulation. In addition, a grouping regression was applied to the sample cities to test the heterogeneous impact of the digital economy on the GTFP. Based upon the empirical findings, this work has the following conclusions. First, the digital economy plays a significant role in improving the GTFP. Second, an industrial structure upgrade has a positive moderating effect on the ability of the digital economy to enhance the GTFP. The environmental regulation, in contrast, has a negative moderating effect. Third, the digital economy exerts heterogeneous impacts on the GTFP across regions, but not at the city level.
... Salahuddin and Gow (2016) explored the relationship between internet development and energy consumption in Australia and found that there is no significant correlation between internet development and carbon emissions in the short and long term. Lange et al. (2020) found that the hope that digitalization will reduce energy consumption has not yet been justified, and instead of saving energy, digitalization has increased energy consumption. ...
... This concern also extends to, among other technologies, micro-and nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS) and hard disk drives, where current is used to manipulate magnetic elements. These challenges, coupled with expected worldwide electricity demands and environmental impacts of existing technology, [14][15][16] have led to an intense search for low-power, energy-efficient materials with flexible functionalities. One proposed solution to this challenge is the use of an applied external electric field, instead of current, to modulate the magnetic properties of a material. ...
Magneto-ionics is an emerging field in materials science where voltage is used as an energy-efficient means to tune magnetic properties, such as magnetization, coercive field, or exchange bias, by voltage-driven ion transport. We first discuss the emergence of magneto-ionics in the last decade, its core aspects, and key avenues of research. We also highlight recent progress in materials and approaches made during the past few years. We then focus on the “structural-ion” approach as developed in our research group in which the mobile ions are already present in the target material and discuss its potential advantages and challenges. Particular emphasis is given to the energetic and structural benefits of using nitrogen as the mobile ion, as well as on the unique manner in which ionic motion occurs in CoN and FeN systems. Extensions into patterned systems and textures to generate imprinted magnetic structures are also presented. Finally, we comment on the prospects and future directions of magneto-ionics and its potential for practical realizations in emerging fields, such as neuromorphic computing, magnetic random-access memory, or micro- and nano-electromechanical systems.
... Demand for digital services continues its exceptional growth, as does its energy consumption, and this has given rise to concerns about the ability of the sector 23 Lange, Pohl, and Santarius (2020). 24 William Stanley Jevons, in his 1865 book The Coal Question, observed that the invention in Britain of a more efficient steam engine meant that the use of coal became economically viable for many new uses. ...
... Omri and Hadj (2020) and Usman et al (2021) found that ICT facilitates knowledge flow between firms to reduce their environmental impact. Lange et al (2020) found that ICT reduced energy consumption through increased energy efficiency and associated sectoral reforms. ...
Many studies have focused on the relationship between the digital economy and carbon emissions at the macro level. However, there is a relative dearth of research on this relationship at the micro level. In this study, we determined the impact of the digital economy on the carbon emissions of individual companies and the mediating role of resource allocation in this relationship using data from listed Chinese manufacturing companies between 2011 and 2019. This analysis yielded three main findings. First, based on firm-level carbon emissions and the borderless organization theory, we found that the digital economy significantly reduced corporate carbon emission intensity. Second, the digital economy reduced resource misallocation and improved resource efficiency, which in turn reduced corporate carbon emission intensity. Third, market drivers and government regulations improved and hindered the ability of the digital economy to reduce corporate carbon emission intensity, respectively. These findings provide evidence for the need for government investment in the development of digital technologies and corporate digitization; the use of digital technologies by businesses to improve resource and energy efficiency; and minimal government regulation of the digital economy in favor of self-regulation through market forces. These measures are important for economic transformation and the achievement of carbon neutrality in emerging developing countries, including China.
... Digitization promotes energy efficiency and also causes the rebound effect to increase energy consumption [22]. Lange, Pohl, and Santarius [23] studied the energy efficiency of ICT in the building sector in 23 European countries. By implementing different ICT solutions, 50% of the countries have achieved more than 20% of their energy-saving targets. ...
This paper constructs a low-carbon energy vulnerability system with the three dimensions of economy–society–environment, uses the entropy method to measure the low-carbon energy vulnerability index of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 2002 to 2018, and observes the essential characteristics. On this basis, we analyze the impact of the development of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) service industry on the vulnerability of low-carbon energy and explore the moderating effects of technological innovation and resource consumption. This paper draws the following conclusions: (1) The low-carbon energy vulnerability of OECD countries shows a gradual downward trend, showing three stages of “continuous rise—declining volatility—low-level fluctuation”. The low-carbon energy policies and implementation efforts in different countries have become the key to reducing the vulnerabilities of low-carbon energy in OECD countries. The economic and social vulnerabilities of low-carbon energy in most countries are outstanding. (2) The development of the ICT service industry benefits by reducing the vulnerability of low-carbon energy with a significant weakening effect, while high-vulnerability countries benefit even more. (3) In the weakening effect of the development of the ICT service industry on the vulnerability of low-carbon energy, technological innovation exerts an enhanced moderating effect, and resource consumption exerts a disruptive moderating effect. Technological innovation accelerates the weakening effect of the ICT service industry, and resource consumption is not conducive to the weakening effect of the ICT service industry. Based on this, we draw corresponding policy recommendations.
... In the existing literature, scholars have mainly studied the effects of digital economy on high-quality development, economic growth, technological innovation, industrial structure upgrading, and total factor productivity (Murthy et al., 2021;Lange et al., 2020;Jin et al., 2020;Ding et al., 2021). It provides an important reference for an in-depth study of the impact effects and channels of action of the digital economy on economic activities. ...
The digital economy based on digital technology is an important force for high-quality economic growth and industrial transformation, and has great potential for value creation. Based on the data of 30 provinces in China from 2007 to 2017, this paper uses entropy method to calculate the industrial green transformation (IGT), and empirically analyzes the impact of Digital economy on IGT. The DE can significantly reduce IGT of local and neighboring areas after excluding the influence of macro system factors and replacing the spatial weight matrix. The DE can indirectly reduce the IGT by accelerating the accumulation of human capital, and green technology innovation. The impact of digital economy on IGT is a non-linear relationship. With the further improvement of environmental regulation, financial development and intellectual property protection, the role of digital economy in IGT is more obvious. To this end, it is necessary to speed up the construction and improvement of digital infrastructure, build an integrated layout of "digital infrastructure", give full play to the radiating role of the digital economy, and implement differentiated development paths based on regional comparative advantages.
... This chapter also addresses the issue of environmental degradation in developing countries [39][40][41][42]. Some authors have analyzed the effect of digitization on energy consumption, considering the direct effects on production, the use of information and communication technologies and economic growth through increased labor and energy productivity [43]. The negative effects of the use of fossil fuels were analyzed and it was emphasized that sustainable development takes into account the conservation of fossil fuels and the development of renewable energies [44]. ...
In this article, the authors present the results of research undertaken in relation to the situation regarding renewable and non-renewable energy reserves in the European Union, as well as the way in which this energy is consumed. The general view presented regarding energy resources around the world is that oil, natural gas and coal are being exhausted at an alarming rate and if we continue to exploit these oil resources at our current pace, we will see a massive depletion in energy resources over the next 41 years. The authors also focus on representing the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions from energy consumption, demonstrating that it has shown a slight decrease in the European Union. The resources and consumption of renewable and non-renewable energy were analyzed in close interdependence with these indicators under study, such as final energy consumption, renewable energy and total energy production, in order to give a correct interpretation of how these resources are used. At the same time, starting from the fact that the world economy is currently facing a cluster of crises (pandemic, financial-economic, energy, general resources), it was deemed important to highlight the fact that the total production of energy demonstrated an oscillating trend during this period.
... Second, the development of digital economy has an indirect effect on local government tax revenue. Relying on the development of modern network information technology, enterprises' production and transaction costs are reduced and market boundaries are expanded (Lange et al., 2020), which will lead to economies of scale, economies of scope and long tail economy, thus effectively expanding the tax base and generating revenue for local governments. Third, the construction of digital economy affects the tax revenue of local governments through different channels. ...
The development of digital economy is becoming an important path to promote the kinetic energy of China's tax revenue development. Based on the panel data from 2011 to 2018, this paper uses Gini coefficient to analyze the regional differences of China's digital economy, and uses fixed effect model, spatial Durbin model, multi-period double difference model and other empirical methods to examine the tax effects of digital economy development. The results show that the regional disparity is the main reason for the regional disparity of digital economy development in China. The development of digital economy directly increases the tax amount of local digital industry, and at the same time it also radiates and drives the increase of local total tax revenue; The tax effect of digital economy has a negative spatial spillover, showing a "siphon effect" to neighboring areas; Mechanism analysis shows that the development of digital economy mainly promotes the increase of local tax revenue through growth effect.
... Although the scale effect of digital transformation will lead to an increase in energy demand (Moyer and Hughes, 2012;Lange et al., 2020), the rapid penetration of digital technology profoundly affects the supply-demand structure and utilization efficiency of energy (Goldbach et al., 2018). The carbon reduction caused by the adjustment of energy consumption structure, the matching of energy supply-demand, and the improvement of energy efficiency is greater than the carbon increase caused by the expansion of production scale, which makes the "net" impact of digital Frontiers in Environmental Science frontiersin.org ...
Objective: To measure the low-carbon development level and digital transformation degree of China’s manufacturing industry, and to examine the impact of digital transformation on low-carbon development.
Methods: This paper uses Super Slack Based Measure (SBM) model and multi-regional input-output model to measure the low-carbon development level and digital transformation degree of 17 manufacturing industries in 30 provinces of China from 2012 to 2018, and uses high-dimensional fixed effect model and mediation model to study the impact of digital transformation on low-carbon development.
Results: 1) During the study period, China’s manufacturing industry showed an upward trend in terms of low-carbon development level and digital transformation, but there were significant regional and industrial disparities. 2) Digital transformation can significantly promote the low-carbon development of manufacturing industry, which is still valid in the robustness test. 3) For sub-indicators, digital industrialization has the most obvious effect on the low-carbon development of manufacturing industry, and the improvement of digital development environment also has a positive impact on low-carbon development. 4) The heterogeneity analysis indicate that digital transformation has a greater impact on promoting low-carbon development of manufacturing in underdeveloped regions, and the positive effect is obvious in medium-low-energy-consuming industries, but not in high-energy-consuming industries. 5) The mechanism test shows that technological innovation is a channel for digital transformation to promote low-carbon development.
Value: This paper provides empirical evidence for the environmental impact of digital transformation, and offers a scientific basis for relevant departments to formulate low-carbon development policies from the perspective of digital transformation.
... This one-of-a-kind domain stands out for its many innovative applications and services and its myriad integrated appliances and modern manufacturing operations [23]. Through the use of core technologies such as Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs); IoT; autonomous, scalable, cooperative robotics; the Internet of Services (IoS); simulations that exploit real-time data to create a computer model that reflects the actual world; big data analytics; and enhanced re-assembly, IR 4.0 aims to improve and update existing production plants, maintenance and management processes, and technology to an intellectual level [24]. The term "responsibility" refers to determining whether a person is responsible for their actions. ...
The Wireless Sensor Network in the Internet of Things (WSN-IoT) has been flourishing as another global breakthrough over the past few years. The WSN-IoT is reforming the way we live today by spreading through all areas of life, including the dangerous demographic aging crisis and the subsequent decline of jobs. For a company to increase revenues and cost-effectiveness growth should be customer-centered and agile within an organization. WSN-IoT networks have simultaneously faced threats, such as sniffing, spoofing, and intruders. However, WSN-IoT networks are often made up of multiple embedded devices (sensors and actuators) with limited resources that are joined via various connections in a low-power and lossy manner. However, to our knowledge, no research has yet been conducted into the security methods. Recently, a Contiki operating system’s partial implementation of Routing Protocol for Low Power & Lossy Network RPL’s security mechanisms was published, allowing us to evaluate RPL’s security methods. This paper presents a critical analysis of security issues in the WSN-IoT and applications of WSN-IoT, along with network management details using machine learning. The paper gives insights into the Internet of Things in Low Power Networks (IoT-LPN) architecture, research challenges of the Internet of Things in Low Power Networks, network attacks in WSN-IoT infrastructures, and the significant WSN-IoT objectives that need to be accompanied by current WSN-IoT frameworks. Several applied WSN-IoT security mechanisms and recent contributions have been considered, and their boundaries have been stated to be a significant research area in the future. Moreover, various low-powered IoT protocols have been further discussed and evaluated, along with their limitations. Finally, a comparative analysis is performed to assess the proposed work’s performance. The study shows that the proposed work covers a wide range of factors, whereas the rest of the research in the literature is limited.
... According to the theoretical analysis, we expect a positive correlation between the digital economy and LIG. To test the hypothesis to be tested, we first construct the ordinary least square model for testing by referring to the practices of existing studies (Lange et al. 2020;Li et al. 2022a, b, c, d;Li et al. 2022a, b, c, d). ...
High-quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country in an all-around way. Innovation, coordination, green development, openness, and sharing are the main connotations of high-quality development. Based on panel data from 286 cities in China, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of the digital economy on low-carbon inclusive development (hereinafter referred to as LIG). The results show that the digital economy has a salient promoting effect on LIG, and with the increase of quantile level, the promoting effect shows a marginal decreasing trend. Heterogeneity analysis found that the cities with low resource dependence and marketization of the digital economy and high environmental concern and competition have more salient promoting effects on LIG. The dimensionality reduction analysis shows that the impact of digital economy on economic growth, social inclusion, and low-carbon ecology gradually increases in turn. The mechanism test shows that R&D investment, green innovation, and market integration play a partial mediating role, while entrepreneurial activity, industrial upgrading, and development imbalance play a fully mediating role. Digital economy promotes urban economic growth and low-carbon ecological development through R&D investment and market integration and mainly promotes low-carbon ecological development through green innovation. The digital economy will promote low-carbon and inclusive urban development by stimulating entrepreneurship, promoting industrial upgrading, and alleviating development imbalances.
The coordinated development of the digital economy and green economy is a key issue that needs to be addressed. Based on the statistical data of 30 provincial-level regions in China from 2014 to 2019, this study empirically analyzed whether China’s digital economy and green economy can achieve coordinated development. In this study, a coupling coordination degree model was used to evaluate the degree of coordinated development of the digital economy and green economy in provincial regions of China. A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method was adopted to identify the realization path of the coordinated development of the digital economy and green economy. The results show the following: (1) the coordinated development degree of the digital economy and green economy in China shows an upward trend from primary coordination in 2014 to intermediate-level coordination in 2019, with great differences between different regions; (2) there are five paths to achieve coordinated development of the digital economy and green economy, which are divided into two categories (technology–environment dual-drive type, and technology–organization–environment linkage drive type); (3) technological innovation capability and government financial support can substitute for one another under certain conditions to achieve the coordinated development of the digital economy and green economy. These conclusions provide a theoretical basis for countries to formulate policies to promote the coordinated development of their digital economy and green economy.
[ENG]
The Duved Project for Local Communities 2. 0 aims to investigate models for how rural areas can be developed, and to some extent to stand as a model for future societies in broader perspectives. An ambitious, broad, and complex goal, to say the least. In this work, the project's work track digitalization has been confronted with and processed a wide range of issues, from a number of different perspectives. Central important lessons that have emerged in the work have repeatedly been about the importance of combining the specifics of the local situation with the larger, broader issues and processes that both contribute to, are involved in, and get their unique and specific form in the material reality that constitutes “the local”. But also in that such specificity has consequences: “resource systems” no longer become abstract concepts, or general replicable solutions, but questions about actual materials, people, works, processes, and so on.
When these become concrete, the “local” also turns out to be of varying size both as a result of prevailing structures and processes, and as a result of which scales are relevant to which issues. This report provides a series of deep-diving arguments for developing the challenges and opportunities of digitalization in a rural context, which consistently puts digitalization in a broader context in order to also have a deeper discussion about how a digitalization process can contribute to increased sustainability.
The report is in Swedish with an English summary
[SWE]
Duvedprojektet för lokalsamhällen 2.0 syftar till att undersöka modeller för hur landsbygden kan utvecklas, och i viss utsträckning stå som modell för framtida samhällen i bredare perspektiv. Ett minst sagt ambitiöst, brett,och komplext mål. I det arbetet har projektets arbetsspår digitalisering konfronterats med och bearbetat en stor spännvidd av frågor, utifrån ett antal olika perspektiv. Centrala viktiga lärdomar som vuxit fram i arbetet har återkommande handlat om vikten av att kombinera det specifika i den lokala situationen med de större, bredare frågorna och processerna som såväl bidrar till, involveras i, och får sin unika och specifika form i den materiella verklighet som utgör ”det lokala”. Men också i att sådan specificitet får följdverkningar: ”resurssystem” blir inte längre abstrakta begrepp, eller generella replikerbara lösningar, utan frågor om faktiska material, människor, arbeten, processer, och så vidare.
När dessa blir konkreta, visar sig också ”det lokala” vara av varierande storlek både som resultat av rådande strukturer och processer, och som resultat av vilka skalor som är relevanta för vilka frågor. Den här rapporten för en serie djupdykande resonemang för att utveckla utmaningar och möjligheter med digitalisering i en landsbygdskontext, som konsekvent sätter digitalisering i en bredare kontext för att på så sätt också föra en djupare diskussion om hur en digitaliseringsprocess kan bidra till ökad hållbarhet.
Under the new development pattern, green low-carbon and digital economy become two mainstream development directions in China. Against the background ‘dual carbon’ strategies, based on the data of China between 2010 and 2018 at the city level, The paper adopts dynamic spatial Durbin models to investigate the causal links causal between digital economy and carbon intensity by constructing different spatial weight matrices, and explore the influence of human capital with threshold model. Results show that：(1) Urban digital economy and carbon intensity show significant positive spatial correlation characteristics. The carbon reduction of digital economy has obvious spatial spillover effect under different spatial weight matrices. (2) Industrial structure upgrading, technological innovation and resource allocation optimization are effective channels through which digital economy contributes to carbon emission reduction. (3) A double-threshold effect of human capital is evident in the carbon reduction of digital economy. The findings offer new perspectives and empirical evidence for understanding the causality relation between the digital economy and carbon emission, and those conclusions have important policy implications for how to promote the digital economy development and thus achieve the ‘double carbon goal’.
Data science driven applications (e.g., big data and artificial intelligence) can support the transition to a green economy. However, this requires overcoming existing barriers and providing appropriate framework conditions. Based on an analysis of 295 German and US start-ups using data science to create positive environmental impacts, we identify six main obstacles to a greater use of data science for sustainable transformation, and propose six measures that can be used to formulate policy recommendations.This paper examines the intersections between the hoped-for shift toward a green economy and data science (various forms of big data analytics and artificial intelligence). It does so through an analysis of data science applications with environmental relevance developed or deployed by German and US start-ups. The majority of the data science applications identified seek to improve the efficiency of existing products and processes, or to provide information. Applications that support more fundamental transformations of existing production and consumption patterns are fewer in number. To increase the sustainability-related impact of data science, it seems necessary to adjust policy framework conditions. Based on our findings, recommendations for action are presented regarding sustainability-related changes of the legal and regulatory framework conditions.
Strategic product data management fosters circular ecosystems that reduce carbon emissions and resource consumption. To this end, legal frameworks are needed to set standards for systematic product transparency and interoperable tracking of materials. Analyzing the EU’s Digital Product Passport (DPP), we propose the creation of publicly coordinated product data platforms to complement DPPs.The growing research interest in digital product passports (DPP) and circular economy platforms portends an ecological economic transformation that will require improved strategic product data governance. Using the literature, we explore the technical and policy frameworks required by data-based policy instruments for digital circular ecosystems (e.g., DPPs). We analyze five empirical product life cycle cases to better understand how the strategic governance of product-related data can connect materials and product flows to shape new collaborative circular ecosystems. For this purpose, we provide new governance proposals for modifying European DPPs to enable the systematic tracking of materials.
Various studies have assessed the GHG footprint of the ICT sector (ICT end-user devices, data centers, telecommunication networks) and the potential of ICT use cases (e.g. smart homes, ride sharing) to avoid GHG emissions in other sectors (e.g buildings, transport). We systematically compare relevant studies from the last ten years and discuss the robustness of results in view of the methods used. The results show that the ICT sector causes between 1.5% and 4% of global GHG emissions, a major share of which is due to the production of ICT end-user devices. Estimating GHG impacts of device production is the main source of uncertainty. Results of studies on ICT's GHG abatement potential are less robust, in particular due to uncertainty with regard to use case impacts in a real-life setting, types and sizes of economy-wide rebound effects. Thus the existing studies do not provide a reliable basis for estimating the actually realized GHG abatements. To improve the assessment results and provide a more reliable basis for deriving GHG reduction measures future research should empirically investigate which solution design and accompanying policies are suitable to exploit GHG reduction potentials in real-life. Results of these studies would also increase the robustness of assessments of GHG abatement potentials.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use in the public sector has changed in recent decades. There is a growing demand for governments to expand their data processing and storage capabilities. Public services provided to citizens are being migrated from physical processes to digital ones. Thus, governments guided by digital technologies have emerged and the concept of e-Government standout. However, technological evolution must development aligned with current environmental concerns. Hereupon, the concept of Green IT has been highlighted in the scientific literature and in organizations/industries that seek the sustainable use of ICT. Thus, this study aims to identify the intersection point between the scientific literature on e-Government and Green IT to enable interdisciplinary research lines involving these subjects. To achieve the objective, first, Systematic Literature Review (SLR) techniques were applied to identify 102 studies. In a second step, techniques of Lexical Analysis and Content Analysis were applied to the textual corpus of the studies identified by the SLR. Third, we applied Zipf’s and Bradford’s bibliometrics laws to identify the main scientific journals and prolific authors. Our analyses suggest that e-Government and Green IT subjects have no associations in the literature studied. Each of the themes is discussed and analyzed differently, but they share similar theoretical underpinnings in the Information Systems field.
The climate impacts of the information and communications technology sector—and Big Data especially—is a topic of growing public and industry concern, though attempts to quantify its carbon footprint have produced contradictory results. Some studies argue that information and communications technology's global carbon footprint is set to rise dramatically in the coming years, requiring urgent regulation and sectoral degrowth. Others argue that information and communications technology's growth is largely decoupled from its carbon emissions, and so provides valuable climate solutions and a model for other industries. This article assesses these debates, arguing that, due to data frictions and incommensurate study designs, the question is likely to remain irresolvable at the global scale. We present six methodological factors that drive this impasse: fraught access to industry data, bottom-up vs. top-down assessments, system boundaries, geographic averaging, functional units, and energy efficiencies. In response, we propose an alternative approach that reframes the question in spatial and situated terms: A relational footprinting that demarcates particular relationships between elements—geographic, technical, and social—within broader information and communications technology infrastructures. Illustrating this model with one of the global Internet's most overlooked components—subsea telecommunication cables—we propose that information and communications technology futures would be best charted not only in terms of quantified total energy use, but in specifying the geographical and technical parts of the network that are the least carbon-intensive, and which can therefore provide opportunities for both carbon reductions and a renewed infrastructural politics. In parallel to the politics of (de)growth, we must also consider different network forms.
Digital infrastructure construction (DIC) and low carbon transformation are important engines and objective functions of the superior economic development, and the synergistic drive between the two is essential to achieving lasting economic development. This study systematically investigates the effect of DIC on carbon total factor productivity (CTEP) using an econometric analysis. It comprehensively explores and effectively evaluates the influence of DIC on the rebound effect of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions (CRE) using the panel data from 282 Chinese cities at the prefectural level between 2007 and 2019. Research findings that, first, the expansion of digital infrastructure has a nonlinear effect on CTEP, with a U-shaped link between the two; Multiple robustness tests confirm that this is still true. Second, DIC and optimisation of the energy consumption structure in a "U" curve relationship, and the major strategy for increasing CTEP is to reduce energy consumption, while industrial structure optimization and technical innovation have less of a mediating influence. Third, further analysis reveals that there is a "U" shaped non-linear connection between the DIC and CRE, and energy savings and emission reductions in the later stages of DIC fall short of expectations. The findings of the study suggest that DIC is extensible in China, and that the study can promote digital infrastructure to enable low-carbon transformation, improve CTEP, and enhance low-carbon transformation's role in fostering high-caliber, environmentally friendly growth.
The digital economy and ecological environment are two major issues related to high-quality economic development. Scholars have not yet reached a unified conclusion about the link between the digital economy and pollution emissions, and the impact mechanism of the former on the latter needs further study. Using data from 278 Chinese cities from 2010 to 2019, this research employs coupling coordination analysis, fixed effect analysis and mediation analysis to examine the heterogeneous impact mechanisms of the expansion of the digital economy on urban pollution reduction from many angles. It discovers that, first, the growth of the digital economy has decreased the discharge of urban pollutants overall. Second, the impact mechanisms of the digital economy are heterogeneous. From a regional perspective, industrial structure supererogation plays an intermediary role in the relationship between digital economy development and pollution reduction in the eastern and central regions, but the mediating effect is not significant in the western and northeastern regions. In terms of the city development level, industrial structure supererogation has significantly mediated the relationship between the growth of the digital economy and the reduction of pollution in first- and second-tier cities, but this mediating effect is not significant in third-tier and other cities. Third, the above conclusions are still valid after the robustness test is carried out using instrumental variable estimation, replacement of the estimation method, and replacement of explanatory variables. This study is a useful contribution to research on the effects of the digital economy and the factors influencing pollution reduction. The results advance the study of the digital economy and also have practical implications for improving China's ecological environment and fostering high-quality economic growth. Finally, we provide policy suggestions for the coordinated promotion of the digital economy's development, industrial structure supererogation and environmental pollution reduction.
Reducing energy intensity has consistently been advocated by the Chinese government in its effort to achieve the carbon peak targets, especially when the emerging economy grows and technology breakthrough happens frequently. In this study, we systematically evaluate China's digital economy based on regional data experience and construct a nonlinear dynamic threshold model to incorporate a heterogeneous threshold of low-carbon technology innovation into the influential mechanism to figure out whether the digital economy can effectively reduce regional energy intensity. It is found that China's digital economy currently shows a trend of overall upward and local fluctuation, and there is a large “gap” between the rich and the poor. Interestingly, there is a significant heterogeneous threshold effect of low-carbon technology innovation on the role of digital economy development in energy intensity: a low level of green technology innovation is not conducive to promoting the development of digital economy to reduce energy intensity, and when the level of green technology innovation increases and exceeds the "critical value", it effectively enhances the impact of digital economy development to a certain extent, thereby promoting the reduction of energy intensity, that is, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the development of digital economy and energy intensity. The research answers the question of how to effectively use low-carbon technology innovation to achieve digital economy development and help reduce regional energy intensity, and provides an effective reference for accelerating the green and high-quality development of the economy.
In the context of the booming digital economy, its underlying impact on fuel poverty alleviation needs to be accurately estimated. To this end, by applying the sample data of 30 provinces from 2006 to 2017, this chapter empirically evaluates whether the accelerated digital economy can effectively alleviate energy poverty. This chapter then tests the heterogeneous effect of digital economy on clean fuel poverty in different areas and quantiles. This chapter primarily concludes that: (1) The rapid evolution of the digital economy plays an increasingly prominent role in addressing fuel poverty; (2) only in regions with high digital economy level and low energy poverty level can digital economy influences energy poverty negatively; and (3) while contributing directly to energy alleviation, the rapid evolution of digital economy can further enhance the impact of poverty alleviation in the energy sector by optimizing energy efficiency. Based on the above three conclusions, several policy suggestions are introduced to mitigate energy poverty in China.
The paper constructs an evaluation index system of China’s digital economy and rural revitalization development, including 46 indicators of digital economy and rural revitalization subsystem, and analyzes the impact of China’s digital economy on rural revitalization by combining spatial Markov analysis method and spatial econometric model, and finds that:① The spatial heterogeneity of rural revitalization pattern is obvious, and the difference between north and south is more prominent, and the spatial clustering characteristic of rural revitalization pattern The spatial clustering characteristics are obvious, and the degree of clustering decreases with the increase of the spatial distance threshold. ② Digital economic development can significantly promote the level of rural revitalization in the region, and this finding is found to be robust by introducing the exogenous policy shock test of the Outline of Digital Rural Development Strategy, and digital economic development has a significant spatial siphon effect and can influence the level of rural revitalization in neighboring regions. Considering spatial heterogeneity, the regression results based on the multi-distance economic circle show that the siphoning effect of digital economy on rural revitalization in other regions peaks at 700 km ③Main contribution: It reveals that implementing a differentiated digital economy development strategy and enhancing the radiation of polarized regions are important for reducing regional differences in digital economy and rural revitalization to realize the coordinated development of China’s digital countryside.
"This is one of the most important pieces of research to come out in ecological macroeconomics in the last 20 years, alongside Peter Victor's 'Managing Without Growth', and Tim Jackson's 'Prosperity Without Growth'. It is the first and only attempt to systematically work out the conditions for zero growth under different economic models.” (Giorgos Kallis, Research Professor of Ecological Economics, Autonomous University of Barcelona)
"Steffen Lange has provided an amazing piece of work. The book has good chances of becoming a standard work for ecological economists in due course." (Arne Heise, Professor of Macroeconomics, University of Hamburg)
How can we organize our economies without growth? "Macroeconomics Without Growth' provides a comprehensive understanding of how non-growing economies can be sustainable. With this book, Steffen Lange brings new momentum into the debate on post-growth, degrowth and steady state economies. The book delves deep into economic theory to understand how a macro-economy can operate without growth. By applying a highly diverse set of theories - from Neoclassical, Keynesian and Marxian traditions - the book is able to cover a wide range of macroeconomic aspects: Is zero growth possible in a capitalist economic system? What happens to aggregate demand and aggregate supply when economies stop growing? And what role do firms, markets and technological change play in post-growth economies?
Steffen Lange conclusively shows that sustainable economies without growth are feasible from a macroeconomic perspective. However, small changes will not suffice. Rather, key economic institutions and dynamics need to be rearranged: the prices of labour and natural resources, the structures of companies, the framework of markets - just to name a few. 'Macroeconomics Without Growth' is the first economics book to investigate nongrowing economies in a comprehensive manner. It is a must read both for economists who want to use economics for a sustainable future, and for environmentalists who want to understand the economic principles of sustainable transformations.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Digitalization encompasses a wide range of new applications of information technology in business models and products that are transforming the economy and social interactions. Digitalization is both an enabler and a disruptor of businesses. The lack of a generally agreed definition of the "digital economy" or "digital sector" and the lack of industry and product classification for Internet platforms and associated services are hurdles to measuring the digital economy. This paper distinguishes between the "digital sector" and the increasingly digitalized modern economy, often called the "digital economy," and focuses on the measurement of the digital sector. The digital sector covers the core activities of digitalization, ICT goods and services, online platforms, and platform-enabled activities such as the sharing economy. Available evidence suggests that the digital sector is still less than 10 percent of most economies if measured by valued added, income or employment. Digitalization has penetrated many activities, and, indeed, almost the entire economy could be included in the "digital economy" broadly defined. However, it is more realistic to focus measurement efforts on a concrete range of economic activities at the core of digitalization. While the term "digital sector" refers to a concrete perimeter of economic activities, the term "digital economy" is often used to indicate that digitalization (e.g., the use of Internet) has spread across all sectors of the economy, from agriculture to warehousing. Next, the paper considers the question of the measurement error in GDP growth and productivity statistics. Insufficient adjustment for quality change in constructing the deflators for digital products, and gaps in measuring the sharing economy and activities of online platforms are two sources of underestimation. The available research suggests that the effect of under-measurement of the digital sector on estimates of US labor productivity growth is no more than 0.3 percentage points, smaller than the post-2005 slowdown in the growth in productivity of 1-2 percentage points. Largely symmetric effect on price statistics, yielding a slight overestimation of inflation. The implied understatement of growth and productivity has been widely discussed in the last years. However, a symmetric effect on the measurement of inflation has been notably overlooked. If growth has been understated due MEASURING THE DIGITAL ECONOMY 2 INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND insufficient downward adjustment of price indexes in the presence of high quality increases in digital products and services, inflation must generally have been overstated by a roughly similar amount. This implication is particularly relevant for the assessment of the monetary policy stance in economies that have suffered deflationary pressures while experiencing a rapid digital transformation. Free digital services that are self-produced, volunteer-produced, or produced by platforms that sell advertising and collect users' data, have been proposed for direct inclusion in the definition of GDP, but a change in the conceptual framework of GDP to directly include "free digital services" in consumption would not be warranted. GDP is a measure of market-and near-market production valued at market prices, and, as such, is well-suited to address key policy questions. However, some free services enabled by digital products represent quality improvements that could be captured in real consumption by quality-adjusting the deflator. Also, research on expanding the measure of investment to include collection of data may imply a modification of the GDP production boundary. Indicators of welfare from free digital products can, and should, be developed in the context of measurement of nonmarket production outside the boundary of GDP. Productivity gains in households' time use for nonmarket production may be increasing welfare in ways not measured by consumption or GDP. Therefore, the old debate about measuring household non-market production is now even more pertinent. International and national institutions need to accelerate efforts to develop indicators of welfare growth from non-market production beyond the boundary of GDP. Recommendations for overcoming the measurement challenges posed by digitalization include improving access by national statistics compilers specifically to administrative data and generally "Big Data." For administrative data, this entails close cooperation of national government agencies, while in the broader case of Big Data, the cooperation should extend to partnerships between the private and the public sectors, including international organizations.
The increasing digitalization of the economy and society is leading to a dynamic increase in the amount of data that is processed and stored in data centers. Some scientific studies assume that this growth will also lead to a significant increase in the energy consumption of data centers worldwide. This article deals with the questions of whether and to what extent the energy consumption of data centers have increased in the past and what future developments can be expected. In addition, future challenges to sustainable data center operation will be analyzed. The article deals in particular with the topics of improving the energy efficiency of IT hardware and software, the use of regenerative electricity for the operation of data centers, and the use of waste heat from data centers.
This paper explores the existing confusion around the conceptual definitions and interpretations of the term circular bioeconomy. The co-existence of diametrically opposite interpretations of the concept indicates lack of a serious discussion of its theoretical foundations. Two narratives on circular bioeconomy are explored in depth: (i) the new economic paradigm based on technological progress (the economics of technological promises) that seeks perpetual economic growth; (ii) an entropic (thermodynamic) narrative that reflects on the limits on economic growth imposed by nature. The latter narrative makes a distinction between primary, secondary and tertiary resource flows and helps to identify what can and cannot be re-circulated within the metabolic pattern of social-ecological systems. Adopting the biophysical view, it becomes clear that the industrial revolution represented a linearization of material and energy flows with the goal to overcome the low pace and density of biological transformations. The required level of productivity of production factors in contemporary developed economies (flows per hour of labor and per hectare of land use) is orders of magnitude larger than the pace and density of supply and sink capacity of natural processes. Relying on nature to ‘close the loop’ will simply slow down the economic process.
Parrique T., Barth J., Briens F., C. Kerschner, Kraus-Polk A., Kuokkanen A., Spangenberg J.H. 2019, 78 pp.
Is it possible to enjoy both economic growth and environmental sustainability? This question is a matter of fierce political debate between green growth and post-growth advocates. Over the past decade, green growth clearly dominated policy making with policy agendas at the United Nations, European Union, and in numerous countries building on the assumption that decoupling environmental pressures from gross domestic product (GDP) could allow future economic growth without end.
Considering what is at stake, a careful assessment to determine whether the scientific foundations behind this “decoupling hypothesis” are robust or not is needed. This report reviews the empirical and theoretical literature to assess the validity of this hypothesis. The conclusion is both overwhelmingly clear and sobering: not only is there no empirical evidence supporting the existence of a decoupling of economic growth from environmental pressures on anywhere near the scale needed to deal with environmental breakdown, but also, and perhaps more importantly, such decoupling appears unlikely
to happen in the future.
The validity of the green growth discourse relies on the assumption of an absolute, permanent, global, large and fast enough decoupling of economic growth from all critical environmental pressures. The literature reviewed clearly shows that there is no empirical evidence for such a decoupling currently happening. This is the case for materials, energy, water, greenhouse gases, land, water pollutants, and biodiversity loss for which decoupling is either only relative, and/or observed only temporarily, and/or only locally. In most cases, decoupling is relative. When absolute decoupling occurs, it is observed only during rather short periods of time, concerning only certain resources or forms of impact, for specific locations, and with very small rates of mitigation.
There are at least seven reasons to be skeptical about the occurrence of sufficient decoupling in the future: Rising energy expenditures, Rebound effects, Problem shifting, The underestimated impact of services, The limited potential of recycling, Insufficient and inappropriate technological change, and Cost shifting.
Each of them taken individually casts doubt on the possibility for sufficient decoupling and, thus, the feasibility of “green growth.” Considered all together, the hypothesis that decoupling will allow economic growth to continue without a rise in environmental
pressures appears highly compromised, if not clearly unrealistic.
This report highlights the need for a new conceptual toolbox to inform and support the design and evaluation of environmental policies. Policy-makers have to acknowledge the fact that addressing environmental breakdown may require a direct downscaling of economic production and consumption in the wealthiest countries. In other words, we advocate complementing efficiency-oriented policies with sufficiency policies, with a shift in priority and emphasis from the former to the latter even though both have a role to play. From this perspective, it appears urgent for policy-makers to pay more attention to and support the developing diversity of alternatives to green growth.
This is the first output for a 3-year research project (ReCap), which is focusing on economy-wide rebound effects and how to mitigate them through policy action. This discussion paper has been written collectively by the research team and has two aims: One is to develop a systematic understanding of the various kinds of rebound effects that are discussed in the literature. This provides to basis for our second aim, which is to analyse the state of research on rebound effects regarding the question of how rebounds can be limited through policy action. In this discussion paper, we therefore introduce a novel multi-level typology of rebound effects, which builds on and extends earlier typologies. In our taxonomy, we differentiate between various micro-, meso- and macroeconomic rebound effects, which arise at micro, meso and macro levels. In the following in-depth literature review, we consider both bottom-up and top-down approaches to studying rebound effects in theory and empirical research before turning to potential policies for mitigating rebound effects. We conclude with an overview of issues for future research and ways in which ReCap intends to contribute to their advancement.
It is not unlikely that we might enter the YottaByte (10 24 Byte) era in the next decade. If so, how can the effect on power consumption be understood? The main problems with several existing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) power footprint investigations are: too limited (geographical and temporal) system boundary, overestimation of power saving potential in the next decade, assume that historical power use can predict future global power use in the next decade despite unprecedented data traffic growth, assume that Moore´s law relation to digital circuitry can continue "forever" and that no problems with extra cooling power will occur for several decades. The highly variable outlooks for the future power consumptions depend on "starting values", disruptions, regional differences and perceptual estimations of electricity intensity reductions and data traffic increase. A hugely optimistic scenario-which takes into account 20% annual improvement of the J/bit in data centres and networks until 2030 is presented. However, the electric power consumption of the present ICT scope will be very significant unless great efforts are put into power saving features enabling such improvements of J/bit. Despite evident risks, it seems though that planned power saving measures and innovation will be able to keep the electricity consumption of ICT and the World under some kind of control. Nevertheless, the power use of certain types of blockchain applications could be another driver which cannot be ignored in the context of ICT global power use. Artificial Intelligence could help reduce the power consumption in ICT, but depending on the goal of the optimization, it may also foster more power use overall. Video streaming is a strong driver of data generation and electricity consumption. The major conclusion is-based on several simulations in the present study-that future consumer 2 ICT infrastructure cannot slow its overall electricity use until 2030 and it will use several times more TWh than today.
This study intends to examine the impact of ICTs (i.e., internet usage and mobile cellular subscriptions), globalization, electricity consumption, financial development, and economic growth on environmental quality by using 1994–2014 panel data of BRICS economies. This study employed a second-generation panel unit root test accounting for the presence of cross-sectional dependence and indicated that carbon dioxide emissions, electricity consumption, financial development, internet usage, mobile usage, globalization, and economic growth have integration of order one. The results from Westerlund panel co-integration test confirms that the variables are co-integrated and revealed that ICT-finance-globalization-electricity-GDP-CO2 nexus has long-run equilibrium relationship. The results from dynamic seemingly unrelated regression (DSUR) indicate that internet usage and mobile cellular subscriptions (ICTs) have significant, adverse impact on carbon dioxide emissions. To put it simply, ICT positively contributes towards environmental quality. Similarly, economic growth also has an adverse effect on carbon dioxide emissions. On the other hand, electricity consumption, globalization, and financial development have a significant positive effect on carbon emissions. In addition, Granger causality test results show the presence of a bidirectional causal relationship between internet usage and environmental quality, financial development and electricity consumption, ICT and financial development, mobile cellular subscription and globalization, economic growth and environmental quality, and internet usage and economic growth. A unidirectional causal link is detected running from mobile cellular subscriptions towards environmental quality, ICT towards electricity consumption, financial development towards environmental quality, globalization towards environmental quality, and globalization towards economic growth. Moreover, time series analysis has also been done in this study to analyze the findings for each of BRICS countries which are directed towards important policy implications. For instance, ICT policy can play an integral part in improving environmental quality policy.
Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions and their redistribution among the atmosphere,
ocean, and terrestrial biosphere – the “global carbon budget” – is
important to better understand the global carbon cycle, support the
development of climate policies, and project future climate change. Here we
describe data sets and methodology to quantify the five major components of
the global carbon budget and their uncertainties. Fossil CO2
emissions (EFF) are based on energy statistics and cement
production data, while emissions from land use and land-use change (ELUC),
mainly deforestation, are based on land use and land-use change data and
bookkeeping models. Atmospheric CO2 concentration is measured
directly and its growth rate (GATM) is computed from the annual
changes in concentration. The ocean CO2 sink (SOCEAN)
and terrestrial CO2 sink (SLAND) are estimated with
global process models constrained by observations. The resulting carbon
budget imbalance (BIM), the difference between the estimated
total emissions and the estimated changes in the atmosphere, ocean, and
terrestrial biosphere, is a measure of imperfect data and understanding of
the contemporary carbon cycle. All uncertainties are reported as ±1σ. For the last decade available (2008–2017), EFF was
9.4±0.5 GtC yr−1, ELUC 1.5±0.7 GtC yr−1, GATM 4.7±0.02 GtC yr−1,
SOCEAN 2.4±0.5 GtC yr−1, and SLAND 3.2±0.8 GtC yr−1, with a budget imbalance BIM of
0.5 GtC yr−1 indicating overestimated emissions and/or underestimated
sinks. For the year 2017 alone, the growth in EFF was about 1.6 %
and emissions increased to 9.9±0.5 GtC yr−1. Also for 2017,
ELUC was 1.4±0.7 GtC yr−1, GATM was 4.6±0.2 GtC yr−1, SOCEAN was 2.5±0.5 GtC yr−1, and SLAND was 3.8±0.8 GtC yr−1,
with a BIM of 0.3 GtC. The global atmospheric
CO2 concentration reached 405.0±0.1 ppm averaged over 2017.
For 2018, preliminary data for the first 6–9 months indicate a renewed
growth in EFF of +2.7 % (range of 1.8 % to 3.7 %) based
on national emission projections for China, the US, the EU, and India and
projections of gross domestic product corrected for recent changes in the
carbon intensity of the economy for the rest of the world. The analysis
presented here shows that the mean and trend in the five components of the
global carbon budget are consistently estimated over the period of 1959–2017,
but discrepancies of up to 1 GtC yr−1 persist for the representation
of semi-decadal variability in CO2 fluxes. A detailed comparison
among individual estimates and the introduction of a broad range of
observations show (1) no consensus in the mean and trend in land-use change
emissions, (2) a persistent low agreement among the different methods on
the magnitude of the land CO2 flux in the northern extra-tropics,
and (3) an apparent underestimation of the CO2 variability by ocean
models, originating outside the tropics. This living data update documents
changes in the methods and data sets used in this new global carbon budget
and the progress in understanding the global carbon cycle compared with
previous publications of this data set (Le Quéré et al., 2018, 2016,
2015a, b, 2014, 2013). All results presented here can be downloaded from
https://doi.org/10.18160/GCP-2018.
This article presents estimations of the energy and carbon footprint of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Entertainment & Media (E&M) sectors globally for 2010–2015 including a forecast to 2020. It builds on three previous global studies (2007, 2011, and 2018) and a Swedish study (2015) by the same authors. The study is based on an extensive dataset which combines primary and secondary data for operational (use stage) energy consumption and life cycle greenhouse gas emissions (CO2e) for the included sub-sectors, including energy and carbon footprint data from about 100 of the major global manufacturers, operators, and ICT and E&M service providers. The data set also includes sales statistics and forecasts for equipment to estimate product volumes in addition to published LCA studies and primary manufacturing data to estimate the embodied carbon footprint of products. The result shows that the ICT and E&M sectors have turned their previously growing footprints into shrinking ones despite a continuous increase in subscriptions and data traffic. Furthermore, the results of this study are also indicating that these footprints are significantly smaller than previously forecasted.
Article: https://doi.org/10.3390/su10093027
Supplementary material: http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/9/3027/s1
Indirect environmental effects of information and communication technology (ICT) are those effects of ICT that change patterns of production or consumption in domains other than ICT, or more precisely, the environmental consequences of these changes. Digitalization as the societal process of ICT-driven change has created increasing interest in the indirect environmental effects of this technology. Assessments of indirect effects face various methodological challenges, such as the definition of the system boundary, the definition of a baseline as a reference or the occurrence of rebound effects. Existing studies use various approaches or methods to assess a spectrum of ICT use cases in several application domains. In view of the large number of assessments that have been conducted, the choices made when applying assessment methods, and the variety of ICT use cases in different application domains investigated, we present a systematic literature review of existing assessments of indirect environmental effects of ICT. The review provides a state-of-the-art overview of the methods used in the research field and is intended to support researchers in designing sound assessments which yield significant results. We identified 54 studies in seven main application domains using 15 different assessment approaches. The most common application domains are virtual mobility (e.g., telecommuting), virtual goods (e.g., digital media), and smart transport (e.g., route optimization). Life-cycle assessment, partial footprint, and the "ICT enablement method" are the most common approaches. The major part of the assessments focuses on patterns of production (e.g., production of paper-based books vs. e-books), a smaller part on patterns of consumption (e.g., changes in media consumption). Based on these results, we identify as a research gap the investigation of ICT impacts on consumer behavior, which could, for example, focus on social practices, and account for the dynamic implications of change. Elaborating such an approach could provide valuable insights into ICT's impact on society and the resulting environmental consequences.
Scholars and activists mobilize increasingly the term degrowth when producing knowledge critical of the ideology and costs of growth-based development. Degrowth signals a radical political and economic reorganization leading to reduced resource and energy use. The degrowth hypothesis posits that such a trajectory of social transformation is necessary, desirable, and possible; the conditions of its realization require additional study. Research on degrowth has reinvigorated the limits to growth debate with critical examination of the historical, cultural, social, and political forces that have made economic growth a dominant objective. Here we review studies of economic stability in the absence of growth and of societies that have managed well without growth. We reflect on forms of technology and democracy compatible with degrowth and discuss plausible openings for a degrowth transition. This dynamic and productive research agenda asks inconvenient questions that sustainability sciences can no longer afford to ignore. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources Volume 43 is October 17, 2018. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Industrial production plays an important role for achieving a green economy and the sustainable development goals. Therefore, the nascent transformation of industrial production due to digitalization into a so-called Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is of great interest from a sustainable development point of view. This paper discusses how the environmental dimension of a sustainable development can potentially benefit from the IIoT—focusing especially on three topics: resource efficiency, sustainable energy and transparency. It presents a state of the art literature analysis of IIoT-enabled approaches addressing the three environmental topics. This analysis is compared with the findings of a survey among Chinese industrial companies, investigating the sustainability-related expectations of participants coming along with the implementation of IIoT solutions. China has been chosen as a case study because it brings together a strong industrial sector, ambitious plans regarding industrial digitalization and a high relevance and need for more sustainability. The survey was conducted with the means of a questionnaire which was distributed via email and used for direct on-site interviews. It focused on large and medium sized companies mainly from Liaoning Province and had a sample size of 109 participants.
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to identify at what extent e-book reading reduces global warming potential (GWP) of book reading activities relative to that of reading only paper books. Past studies assume e-books and paper books are interchangeable during consumption, but adopting e-book reading can alter reading patterns in reality. This research comparatively assessed the GWP of reading only paper books and that of reading pattern of after e-reader adoption of consumer segments.
Methods
We computed GWP of book reading activities of consumer segments that include a life cycle of paper book, e-book, and e-book reading device. Two e-book devices were considered: a designated e-book device (e-reader) and a tablet. The functional units are book reading activities per person and per person-book, which account the number of books purchased or acquired and the reading hours per person. We collected data through a web survey in the USA. Consumer segmentation was performed by analyzing the level of importance in the aspects of book reading activities as a measurement variable. To observe the changes in reading patterns upon e-reader adoption within the same population, we conducted a 3-month social experiment involving e-readers in the USA.
Results and discussion
Adopting e-readers was discovered to reduce both the GWP per person and the GWP per person-book of book reading activities. The GWP of e-books read with an e-reader and the GWP of paper books were found to break even at 4.7 books per year, provided consumers read less than 11 h a day. According to the web survey, e-reader users purchase more than seven e-books annually on average, which resulted in a smaller GWP per person-book relative to that of one paper book. Furthermore, the GWP per person in the social experiment was smaller for e-reader adopters than those who only read paper books because they substituted e-books for paper books. The overall book reading volume remains unchanged upon e-reader adoption.
Conclusions
Adoption of e-readers reduces the GWP from book reading activities with only paper books, provided more than 4.7 paper books are substituted by e-books annually, and provided consumers’ total consumption volume remain unchanged. E-reader adopters read sufficient number of e-books to break even with paper books. However, most e-reader adopters are yet to fully abandon paper books for e-books. Analyzing the differences in the reading experience between e-books and paper books is a future task.
Climate change is recognised as one of the key challenges humankind is facing. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector including data centres generates up to 2% of the global CO2 emissions, a number on par to the aviation sector contribution, and data centres are estimated to have the fastest growing carbon footprint from across the whole ICT sector, mainly due to technological advances such as the cloud computing and the rapid growth of the use of Internet services. There are no recent estimations of the total energy consumption of the European data centre and of their energy efficiency. The aim of this paper is to evaluate, analyse and present the current trends in energy consumption and efficiency in data centres in the European Union using the data submitted by companies participating in the European Code of Conduct for Data Centre Energy Efficiency programme, a voluntary initiative created in 2008 in response to the increasing energy consumption in data centres and the need to reduce the related environmental, economic and energy supply security impacts. The analysis shows that the average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of the facilities participating in the programme is declining year after year. This confirms that voluntary approaches could be effective in addressing climate and energy issue.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an important enabler for a low-carbon economy in Switzerland. ICT has the potential to avoid up to 3.37 times more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than the amount of emissions caused by the production, operation and disposal of ICT devices and infrastructures used in Switzerland in 2025. In absolute terms, ICT will enable the Swiss economy to save up to 6.99 Mt CO2-equivalents (CO2e) per year, with an own carbon footprint of 2.08 Mt CO2e per year.
This opportunity for the ICT sector to contribute to climate protection, however, can only be realized under optimistic assumptions. In particular, it is necessary that the existing technological and economic potentials are systematically exploited by taking ambitious and targeted actions. Such actions can be especially effective in the transportation, building and energy sectors, which have the highest potential for ICT-enabled (“smart”) solutions to reduce GHG emissions. At the same time, the carbon footprint of the ICT sector itself must be reduced by 17%, which is technologically and economically feasible due to efficiency gains.
In the face of growing popularity of eco-feedback innovations, recent studies draw attention to the relevance of the human factor for a more effective design of eco-feedback. This paper explores these challenges more deeply by employing a mixed methods approach. We provide in-situ insights from a Living Lab experiment on the effect of smart home systems and traffic light feedback on heating energy consumption in private households. Our results from an interrupted time series analysis of logged data on indoor room temperature, CO 2 concentration and consumption of natural gas show that the interventions do not affect heating as expected, neither for automating behaviour via high-tech smart home systems nor via low-tech traffic light feedback. Smart home systems do not promise a significant reduction of heating energy consumption and a traffic light feedback on Original Research Article Buhl et al.; CJAST, 22(4): 1-18, 2017; Article no.CJAST.34414 2 indoor air quality does not lead to a reaction of indoor CO 2 concentrations, but may reduce heating energy consumption. Qualitative interviews on heating practices of participants suggests that comfort temperatures, lack of competences and inert heating systems do override expected effects of the feedback interventions. We propose that high-tech smart home systems should carefully consider the handling competences of users. Low-tech feedback products on the other hand should by design stronger address user experience factors like comfort temperatures.
Climate change poses great challenges to modern societies, central amongst which is to decouple human need satisfaction from energy use. Energy systems are the main source of greenhouse gas emissions, and the services provided by energy (such as heating, power, transport and lighting) are vital to support human development. To address this challenge, we advocate for a eudaimonic need-centred understanding of human well-being, as opposed to hedonic subjective views of well-being. We also argue for a shift in the way we analyse energy demand, from energy throughput to energy services. By adopting these perspectives on either end of the wellbeing-energy spectrum, a “double decoupling” potential can be uncovered. We present a novel analytic framework and showcase several methodological approaches for analysing the relationship between, and decoupling of, energy services and human needs. We conclude by proposing future directions of research in this area based on the analytic framework.
This paper presents a critical review of the literature on the rebound effects generated by information and communication technologies (ICT). Following a discussion of the types of general rebound, including direct, indirect, and economy-wide, the literature on ICT-related rebound effects is critically assessed. The chapter suggests ways of overcoming rebound and lays out promising avenues of research to better understand and tackle rebound effects in ICT.
The Paris agreement on climate took effect on 4 November 2016. The agreement plans on holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. This paper compares an ecological modernisation (EM) development path with a degrowth development path, using urban and land-use planning impact on housing and transportation as cases. The two positions (EM and degrowth) agree on the need for a fundamental reduction in climate gases but disagree on which strategies should be pursued. EM transitions do not challenge the values associated with the capitalistic market economy and believe that policies, such as the right-price signals, should nudge producers and consumers in an environmentally benign direction. Conversely, degrowth rejects the EM belief in green growth, and holds that it will not be possible to decouple the economy from environmental loads to the necessary extent if the economy keeps growing. We conclude that we need a fundamental transformational change in society, i.e., a steering away from the growth ideology, and pursue policies that introduce maximum housing standards and limit mobility to succeed with the goals of the Paris agreement.
In this study, the impact of information communication technologies (ICT) on electricity consumption in the next eleven (N-11) emerging economies over the period 1990-2014 is examined. This period coincides with high economic growth rates in those countries and associated rapidly increasing electricity consumption as well as the ICT revolution that saw the rapid uptake of new ICT by its peoples. Little has been published on the relationship between ICT and electricity consumption in the N-11 emerging economies. This paper examines the hypothesis that increased use of ICT increases electricity consumption. Secondly, how different measures of ICT affect electricity consumption and finally, what are the short-run and long run elasticities of electricity demand with respect to ICT in N-11 countries? The methods used included dynamic panel data models (mean group [MG], pool mean group [PMG], system generalized methods of moments) and show a positive and statistically significant relationship between ICT and electricity consumption where ICT is measured using internet connections, mobile phones or the import percentage of ICT goods of total imports. Long run ICT elasticities are smaller than income elasticities but because ICT growth rates are so much higher than economic growth rates, the impact of ICT on electricity consumption is greater than the impact of income on electricity consumption. Electricity demand projections in emerging economies, which do not include ICT as an explanatory variable, may underestimate actual electricity demand. This can lead to unplanned electricity shortages if actual electricity demand exceeds planned electricity demand. Thus, the paper gives policy recommendations based on the empirical results for the N-11 countries to address this problem.
Background. There has been sustained and growing interest in characterizing the net energy impact of information and communication technology (ICT), which results from indirect effects offsetting (or amplifying) the energy directly consumed by ICT equipment. These indirect effects may be either positive or negative, and there is considerable disagreement as to the direction of this sign as well as the effect magnitude. Literature in this area ranges from studies focused on a single service (such as e-commerce versus traditional retail) to macroeconomic studies attempting to characterize the overall impact of ICT. Methods. We review the literature on the indirect energy effect of ICT found via Google Scholar, our own research, and input from other researchers in the field. The various studies are linked to an effect taxonomy, which is synthesized from several different hierarchies present in the literature. References are further grouped according to ICT service (e.g., e-commerce, telework) and summarized by scope, method, and quantitative and qualitative findings. Review results. Uncertainty persists in understanding the net energy effects of ICT. Results of indirect energy effect studies are highly sensitive to scoping decisions and assumptions made by the analyst. Uncertainty increases as the impact scope broadens, due to complex and interconnected effects. However, there is general agreement that ICT has large energy savings potential, but that the realization of this potential is highly dependent on deployment details and user behavior. Discussion. While the overall net effect of ICT is likely to remain unknown, this review suggests several guidelines for improving research quality in this area, including increased data collection, enhancing traditional modeling studies with sensitivity analysis, greater care in scoping, less confidence in characterizing aggregate impacts, more effort on understanding user behavior, and more contextual integration across the different levels of the effect taxonomy.
Rechenzentren sind wie Stromversorgung und Verkehrswege heute eine notwendige Infrastruktur für Wirtschaft, Verwaltung und Forschung. Zwischen 2003 und 2013 ist die IT-Fläche in deutschen Rechenzentren um 42 % auf ca. 1,8 Millionen m2 gewachsen. Von Rechenzentren sind gegenwärtig ca. 200.000 Vollzeit-Arbeitsplätze abhängig. Davon werden rund 120.000 Beschäftigte für den reinen Betrieb der Rechenzentren eingesetzt. Weitere 80.000 Personen sind direkt von Rechenzentren abhängig. Sie arbeiten in Systemhäusern, Baufirmen und spezialisierten Dienstleistern sowie im Handwerk ausschließlich für Rechenzentren. Jährlich werden ca. 8 Mrd. € in Rechenzentren investiert.
Cloud Computing (CloudC) is one of the most prominent recent trends in
the digital communications sector and represents a paradigm shift within the ICT
industry. The supply of popular applications, such as cloud storage and cloud video
streaming, has caused a surge in the demand for CloudC services, which offer the
advantages of low economic cost, high data transfer speeds, and improved mobility,
security, scalability, and multi-tenancy. In this chapter, we investigate the circumstances
under which this new CloudC infrastructure is likely to reduce energy
use of our new digital lifestyle, or when it simply catalyses a rebound effect that
could hamper ICT-related energy savings. We classify CloudC rebound effects as
either direct or indirect rebound effects, and we discuss the differences and overlap
between rebound effects, enabling effects, and transformational effects. An understanding
of these differences is important for understanding energy use associated
with CloudC.
Decoupling technologies, opportunities and policy options
This report was produced by the Decoupling Working Group of the International Resource Panel. It explores technological possibilities and opportunities for both developing and developed countries to accelerate decoupling and reap the environmental and economic benefits of increased resource productivity. It also examines several policy options that have proved to be successful in helping different countries to improve resource productivity in various sectors of their economy, avoiding negative impacts on the environment.
It does not seem possible for a global economy based on the current unsustainable patterns of resource use to continue into the future. The economic consequences of these patterns are already apparent in three areas: increases in resource prices, increased price volatility and disruption of environmental systems. The environment impacts of resource use are also leading to potentially irreversible changes to the world’s ecosystems, often with direct effects on people and the economy – for example through damage to health, water shortages, loss of fish stocks or increased storm damage.
But there are alternatives to these scary patterns. Many decoupling technologies and techniques that deliver resource productivity increases as high as 5 to 10-fold are already available, allowing countries to pursue their development strategies while significantly reducing their resource footprint and negative impacts on the environment.
This report shows that much of the policy design “know-how” needed to achieve decoupling is present in terms of legislation, incentive systems, and institutional reform. Many countries have tried these out with tangible results, encouraging others to study and where appropriate replicate and scale up such practices and successes.
Decoupling technologies, opportunities and policy options
This report was produced by the Decoupling Working Group of the International Resource Panel. It explores technological possibilities and opportunities for both developing and developed countries to accelerate decoupling and reap the environmental and economic benefits of increased resource productivity. It also examines several policy options that have proved to be successful in helping different countries to improve resource productivity in various sectors of their economy, avoiding negative impacts on the environment.
It does not seem possible for a global economy based on the current unsustainable patterns of resource use to continue into the future. The economic consequences of these patterns are already apparent in three areas: increases in resource prices, increased price volatility and disruption of environmental systems. The environment impacts of resource use are also leading to potentially irreversible changes to the world’s ecosystems, often with direct effects on people and the economy – for example through damage to health, water shortages, loss of fish stocks or increased storm damage.
But there are alternatives to these scary patterns. Many decoupling technologies and techniques that deliver resource productivity increases as high as 5 to 10-fold are already available, allowing countries to pursue their development strategies while significantly reducing their resource footprint and negative impacts on the environment.
This report shows that much of the policy design “know-how” needed to achieve decoupling is present in terms of legislation, incentive systems, and institutional reform. Many countries have tried these out with tangible results, encouraging others to study and where appropriate replicate and scale up such practices and successes
Growth in energy use has slowed owing to efficiency gains that smart policies can help maintain in the near term
The idea of continued economic growth is increasingly questioned and critically analysed on the basis of its potential negative sustainability impact. Along with the critique, visions and strategies for alternative systems need also be brought onto the agenda. The aim of this paper is to present the qualitative content of scenarios that explore sustainability strategies for the Swedish society when economic growth is not seen as an end in itself, and instead the objective is other values/targets that society might wish to achieve. Multi-target backcasting scenarios are developed that illustrate future states in which four sustainability targets (climate, land use, participation, and resource security) are to be attained. The focus of these four scenarios is: 1) a Collaborative economy, 2) Local self-sufficiency, 3) Automation for quality of life, and 4) Circular economy in the welfare state. In the paper, we also present the process of the development of the scenarios, and feedback from stakeholders. Although the focus is on Sweden, the process and scenarios may also be relevant for other similar countries. The scenarios are discussed in terms of their relevance and their purpose, the fulfilment of the sustainability targets, and the multi-target approach.
The paper offers a review of selected topics in the empirical literature on structural change and sustainability. We focus on aspects of structural change that directly affect emissions and energy intensity: changes of the sectoral composition of economies, trade and international fragmentation of production, technological change and innovation, and demand. We identify several empirical facts. First, only a few countries have experienced a decoupling between growth and emissions, due to proportionately faster growth rather than greater energy efficiency. Second, the long-term shift from manufacturing to services has not led, in all cases, to the de-materialisation of economies and a lower environmental burden. Exploitation of energy efficiency increases depends on the ability of the service sectors to incorporate technical changes to reduce energy intensity. Third, global trade and energy and emissions intensity trends support the ‘pollution haven’ hypothesis, which predicts displacement of the environmental burden from developed to emerging countries. The pursuit by developing countries of a long-term strategy of ‘trading jobs for emissions' is likely to exacerbate the asymmetry related to emissions intensities between developed and less developed economies. The review should inform debate on environmental policy within the broader context of innovation and development policies.
Information and communication technology (ICT) is often considered a technology for reducing environmental emissions by increasing energy and resource efficiencies of processes. However, due to other effects of ICT, such as rebound and induction effects, the net benefits of ICT in terms of environmental impact are by no means assured. Even though the relevance of indirect or higher order effects has become a well-known issue in recent years, their environmental assessment remains controversial. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the most established environmental assessment methods for modelling the environmental effects of goods and services throughout their life cycle. Although LCA is traditionally rather product-focused, there exist also LCA-based approaches to assess higher order effects of technology replacement and optimization.
This paper examines whether and how LCA case studies on environmental effects of ICT already take into account related higher order effects. A systematic review of scientific literature published since 2005 has been conducted and 25 case studies were analyzed in detail. The following research questions were addressed: i) Which products are assessed? ii) Which higher order effects of ICT are considered; and iii) how is the integration of higher order effects methodically realized? The results show that few case studies were concerned with the environmental effects of the introduction of ICT services in commerce, telework and monitoring and control. Most studies investigated the substitution of certain media with electronic devices or digital services. It was found that technology-based higher order effects, such as optimization and substitution, are usually included in the assessment by choosing comparative study designs, while user-related higher order effects, such as rebound effects and induction effects, are less often considered. For the latter effects, methodological integration was mainly provided by scenario modelling and sensitivity analysis. Overall, most studies chose an attributional LCA approach. It can be concluded from the results that, in particular, user-related effects such as rebound effects have not yet been frequently included in the environmental assessment of ICT. The identified research gaps include in particular interdisciplinary approaches on how changing use patterns can be more strongly observed in LCA.
Critics have long questioned the feasibility (and desirability) of exponential growth on a finite planet. More recently, mainstream economists have begun to suggest some ‘secular’ limits to growth. Declining growth rates have in their turn been identified as instrumental in increased inequality and the rise of political populism. This paper explores these emerging arguments paying a particular attention to the dynamics of secular stagnation. It examines the underlying phenomenon of declining labour productivity growth and unpacks the close relationships between productivity growth, the wage rate and social inequality. It also points to the historical congruence (and potential causal links) between declining productivity growth and resource bottlenecks. Contrary to some mainstream views, this paper finds no inevitability in the rising inequality that has haunted advanced economies in recent decades, suggesting instead that it lies in the pursuit of growth at all costs, even in the face of challenging fundamentals. This strategy has hindered technological innovation, reinforced inequality and exacerbated financial instability. At the very least, this paper argues, it is now time for policy to consider seriously the possibility that low growth rates might be ‘the new normal’ and to address carefully the ‘post-growth challenge’ this poses.
Facing the intertwined environmental, social and economic crisis requires us to seriously consider alternatives to the current capitalist system, including the emerging concept of degrowth. Existing understandings of degrowth have focused on characterizing the shape, the key elements and the proposals for a degrowth society. However, its dynamic and evolving nature as an alternative vision of the future, and the dynamics of a transition toward degrowth are inadequately considered. This paper seeks to address this conceptual gap through a reconceptualisation of degrowth as a radical niche innovation to the capitalist-growth regime. By extending the multi-level perspective framework to the capitalist-growth system, we undertake a critical reconsideration of the multi-level perspective, exposing key assumptions of this framework grounded in capitalist economic theory. Through this, we propose a Pluriversal potential pathway for change. To consider this further, a bibliometric analysis is used to measure and visualize research activity in degrowth as a proxy for the processes of development of the degrowth niche. Then, we return to the multi-level perspective to consider two potential pathways for change involving the degrowth niche and the capitalist-growth regime. Finally, we point to areas for further research that build on this new conceptualisation of a degrowth transition.
