The UN75 Declaration and its subsequent Common Agenda deployed by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres calls on renewed efforts to improve digital cooperation and to protect the planet. Those two notions are brought together under the UN SG Roadmap for Digital Cooperation which addresses Digital Environmental Sustainability. The Global Digital Compact, proposed under the Common Agenda and informed by the Roadmap, will be agreed upon at the Summit of the Future in September 2024 which reviews the progress made on the UN75 Declaration. In parallel, the link between green and digital transitions, and the necessity to address them jointly, is growing in importance for actors in the Europe and Central Asia region.
In light of the above, this roundtable will share policy recommendations and actions to support an inclusive and green digital transformation. It will look at factors hindering internet connectivity access and use across communities and locations. It will discuss the importance of robust digital infrastructure as a prerequisite for the successful uptake of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) solutions serving climate action. Overall, the roundtable will review the achievement made on SDG 9 and 17 indicators related to internet connectivity access and use, ICT infrastructure, innovation, and the development, transfer, and dissemination of environmentally sound technologies. Recognizing the need for strengthened digital cooperation, this roundtable will emphasize a systemic approach to digital development. Collaboration between the ICT and the Environment sectors is even more so crucial to a successful environmentally-sound digital development.
Digital solutions catalyze innovative economic development, help create jobs, advance quality education, boost competitiveness, and can improve the lives of citizens everywhere. However, the benefits of digital development are not yet available to all. The UN universal meaningful connectivity targets, recently approved by the UN Secretary General's Envoy on Technology, complement the SDGs and set the objective to ensure universal access to connectivity and use of the Internet, enhanced affordability of broadband Internet access, and digital literacy by 2030. While Western European countries have already reached universal 4G coverage, Eastern European and Central Asian countries still have an approximative 10% gap in 4G coverage, and about 2% of the population is not covered by mobile networks at all (SDG target 9.c.1). Besides, the regional gap in fixed broadband subscriptions is widening (SDG target 17.6.2). The number of Internet users is steadily growing, but there is still a 13% usage gap in the Western part of the region and an 18% gap in the Eastern part of the region that needs to be bridged (SDG target 17.8.1). These statistics prove the need for continued, renewed, and concerted actions to ensure affordable and meaningful access to ICT devices for all, including girls and women, and vulnerable populations. The digital gender divide in access to devices and the Internet remains significant, and this gap is even wider when introducing the concept of meaningful access to connectivity. The Commission on the Status of Women, in its Agreed Conclusions for CSW67, “underscored that rapid technological change, including new and emerging digital technologies, has an impact on women's employment opportunities and can accelerate progress towards achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes and facilitate efforts to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as bridge digital divides both between and within countries".
On our way to this objective, we must consider and limit the negative impact of the manufacturing and use of digital and ICT solutions and devices on the environment. Such negative externalities include greenhouse gas emissions, energy or water consumption, loss of raw and rare earth materials, and electronic waste generation. Ensuring a circularity of electronics is necessary to handle what the UN now calls a 'tsunami of e-waste'. Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) constitutes one of the fastest-growing streams of physical waste in today's global environment.
According to the latest UN Global E-Waste Monitor, in Europe, 12.0 million tonnes (16.2 kg per capita) of e-waste were generated in 2019, of which 42.5% have been documented to be collected and properly recycled. For the CIS Regions, available data suggests 5 million tonnes (8.7 kg per capita), with the reported collection rate being only 3.2%. If not properly recycled or treated, this waste can threaten people's health and well-being and create untold pollution. Extending the life of electronic products and re-using electrical components is also key for economic development, allowing the saving of valuable materials and rare earth materials. Collection and recycling operations can also create new employment, economic activity, education, and trade.
While more electronic devices are part of the problem, they also can be a big part of the solution. Digital and ICT solutions and devices constitute tremendous opportunities for sustainable development. They are central to providing real-time and actionable insights into the state of the planet. Internet connectivity is a prerequisite to gathering data, which in turn plays an important role in supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation actions, benefiting nature protection and ecosystem restoration, as well as improving monitoring and decision-making capacities. Digital solutions can also play a critical role in making the implementation of environmental regulation more efficient and thus aiding enforcement efforts, such as through producer registration, online auditing and reporting, data collection and sharing, smart contracts and real-time accounting software.
