Session
Organizer 1: Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Organizer 2: Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Organizer 3: Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Organizer 4: Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Organizer 5: Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Organizer 6: Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Organizer 2: Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Organizer 3: Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Organizer 4: Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Organizer 5: Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Organizer 6: Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 1: Bianca Kremer, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 2: Eugenio Garcia, Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 3: Vanessa GRAY, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
Speaker 4: Jaewon Son, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 5: Modestha Mensah, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 2: Eugenio Garcia, Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 3: Vanessa GRAY, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
Speaker 4: Jaewon Son, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 5: Modestha Mensah, Civil Society, African Group
Format
Roundtable
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: The round table format favors the exchange of multiple views and diverse perspectives, facilitating multistakeholder engagement. The 90-minute duration allows enough time for the presentation of the varied experiences and viewpoints on the challenges and opportunities of using ICT for climate change, while providing the opportunity for dialogue between speakers for reaching consensual points that can serve as inputs for upcoming multistakeholder meetings, such as COP 30. Fundamental to this thought-provoking process is the allotted time that will be used for Q&A, which will serve to stimulate discussion even further and promote greater interaction between all participants.
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: The round table format favors the exchange of multiple views and diverse perspectives, facilitating multistakeholder engagement. The 90-minute duration allows enough time for the presentation of the varied experiences and viewpoints on the challenges and opportunities of using ICT for climate change, while providing the opportunity for dialogue between speakers for reaching consensual points that can serve as inputs for upcoming multistakeholder meetings, such as COP 30. Fundamental to this thought-provoking process is the allotted time that will be used for Q&A, which will serve to stimulate discussion even further and promote greater interaction between all participants.
Policy Question(s)
1. How can we harness ICT to advance inclusive and sustainable development, including in the fight against climate change, while mitigating their negative environmental impacts?
2. What kind of policies should be adopted so that the cost of digital innovation and the use of natural resources do not reproduce economic, social or environmental inequalities?
3. Considering multistakeholder experiences, how can IGFs inform and influence the UNFCCC COPs, bringing both communities closer together?
What will participants gain from attending this session? This session aims to bring together the community that works with digital technologies for development and the community that works with climate change and sustainability, shedding light on the nexus between both fields that are seldom in close dialogue. Participants and attendees are expected to gain better understanding on the relationship between technology, innovation and climate change, exploring the potential opportunities of using ICT for climate change monitoring, adaptation and mitigation, with a view to the environmental impacts of such technologies. In addition, in the context of COP 30, attendees are invited to reflect on how technology can support the call for action against climate change and provide inputs that will contribute to the discussions of said meeting. Last but not least, the session will also raise awareness within the IGF community, expanding opportunities of dialogue and engagement in such pressing discussion.
Description:
Recent times have seen reaping advancements in the development of digital technologies, such as AI and IoT. Concurrently, the climate change emergency has led to critical environmental hazards, with unprecedented socioeconomic impacts. In such a case, technologies offer great potential for monitoring, mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Despite their potential contributions to resilience, these technologies, nonetheless, may also negatively impact the environmental footprint, causing resource depletion, energy consumption and generation of waste. Although climate change and digital technologies are deeply interconnected, environmental hazards are often more detrimental to vulnerable groups such as women and indigenous populations, which are also those who benefit the least from digital advancements. Additionally, global inequalities are deepened in this scenario, given that, often developing countries which are important providers of raw materials tend to be more exposed to environmental risks, albeit having less digital resources to mitigate them due to lagging digital divides (OECD, 2024). In this grave context, the Brazilian presidency of the 30th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30 UNFCCC), in Brazil, has stressed the need to “align international financial flows and merge the digital and climate transitions into one single new industrial revolution that is climate conscious”. Responding this urgent call to action, this workshop will discuss how digital technologies can be deployed sustainably to support the fight against climate change, with attention to inequalities in terms of exposure to positive and negative socioeconomic impacts. It aims to bring together different stakeholders, bridging the gap between technological and environmental fields, to assess challenges and opportunities faced by actors and States in view of this scenario. This debate will provide inputs to COP 30, encompassing discussions on interconnected issues such as adaptation to climate change, climate justice and the social impacts of climate change.
Recent times have seen reaping advancements in the development of digital technologies, such as AI and IoT. Concurrently, the climate change emergency has led to critical environmental hazards, with unprecedented socioeconomic impacts. In such a case, technologies offer great potential for monitoring, mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Despite their potential contributions to resilience, these technologies, nonetheless, may also negatively impact the environmental footprint, causing resource depletion, energy consumption and generation of waste. Although climate change and digital technologies are deeply interconnected, environmental hazards are often more detrimental to vulnerable groups such as women and indigenous populations, which are also those who benefit the least from digital advancements. Additionally, global inequalities are deepened in this scenario, given that, often developing countries which are important providers of raw materials tend to be more exposed to environmental risks, albeit having less digital resources to mitigate them due to lagging digital divides (OECD, 2024). In this grave context, the Brazilian presidency of the 30th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30 UNFCCC), in Brazil, has stressed the need to “align international financial flows and merge the digital and climate transitions into one single new industrial revolution that is climate conscious”. Responding this urgent call to action, this workshop will discuss how digital technologies can be deployed sustainably to support the fight against climate change, with attention to inequalities in terms of exposure to positive and negative socioeconomic impacts. It aims to bring together different stakeholders, bridging the gap between technological and environmental fields, to assess challenges and opportunities faced by actors and States in view of this scenario. This debate will provide inputs to COP 30, encompassing discussions on interconnected issues such as adaptation to climate change, climate justice and the social impacts of climate change.
Expected Outcomes
Climate change is a global urgency and the importance to face its challenges has mobilized great efforts worldwide. Digital technologies have been increasingly used for this purpose, also leading to negative environmental impacts, nonetheless. In this context, this session will address how a sustainable use of digital technologies could contribute to these efforts. Expected outcomes and outputs follow below.
1. Mapping and dissemination of sustainable initiatives that use ICT to fight climate change, in practices which are not detrimental to the environment;
2. Use of key takeaways on session discussion as inputs for the upcoming COP 30 debates, seeking to strengthen state capacities in montoring, mitigating and adapting to climate change, considering the potential role of digital and sustainable technologies in this process.
Hybrid Format: The session will be broken down in four: (1) Opening - climate change and its intersection with digital technologies (5 mins); (2) Perspectives of invited speakers on environmental impacts of digital technologies, positive and negative (including experiences of sustainable ICT deployment) (35 mins); (3) Discussion - inputs for the upcoming COP 30: how can international multistakeholder meetings, ie- COP and IGF, become better connected? (4) Q&A (30 mins). The onsite moderator will oversee all interventions to safeguard diversity and ensure that session goals are met. The online moderator will oversee online questions (Zoom Chat; Q&A), and integrate them into the onsite discussion. The rapporteur will note the key takeaways for the IGF reports. The organization team will also be alert to assist with any technical issues that arises, ensuring a smooth session roll-out.