Aligning the EU’s twin green and digital transitions offers great possibilities for Europe: joining up the agendas could help the EU to get on track to achieving a sustainable, competitive climate-neutral economy. However, while the European Green Deal recognises that the two transitions are closely linked, more efforts are needed to use data and digital solutions to address our greatest sustainability challenges and reduce the climate and environmental footprint of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) themselves. For digital transition to become a true driver for the Green Deal, addressing the energy consumption, emissions and e-waste from digital solutions themselves will be key.

This Policy Dialogue reflected on the current climate and environmental footprint of digitalisation (including data centres and digital devices) and ways to reduce it. It addressed the prospects for making electronic devices more circular and energy-efficient, ICT infrastructure greener and software more sustainable. Moreover, it considered the role of EU policies in supporting these efforts.

You can read the event report here.