Page 16 - Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Climate change is an existential crisis and represents the greatest challenge facing this generation. It
is clear that business as usual is simply not good enough anymore. We need deep, transformational
and systemic change throughout society if we are to truly build a low-emissions, highly-resilient
and more sustainable future. Technological innovations have a critical role to play in this process,
including enhancing and accelerating the implementation of Nationally-Determined Contributions,
National Adaptation Plans and both long and medium-term climate change strategies. Specifically,
technological innovation in adaptation and mitigation has received increased attention, thereby
providing opportunities to accelerate climate action on all fronts.

Frontier technologies present even greater potential in our fight against climate change. In the energy
and renewables sector, innovations such as smart grids, through the Internet of Things (IoT), may
substantially lower global emissions, helping to drive their necessary peak and decline. In the area
of climate resilience, technologies such as satellite 2.0 and artificial intelligence offer enormous
opportunities when it comes to identifying and addressing climate risks and their impacts, as well as
promoting climate-resilient development.

While the potential of these new technologies is extraordinary, as the United Nations family, it is
our responsibility to not only promote the transfer and diffusion of new technologies, but also to
ensure that their benefits are available to all people. For example, we must ensure that autonomous
systems are free of biases and discrimination and we must also ensure they consider the interests
of the most vulnerable.

Technology, if harnessed correctly, offers enormous potential in our efforts to address climate change.
It can not only offer unique opportunities—including economic—but it can have an immediate and
significant impact and put countries on the path to low-carbon and climate-resilient development.

Patricia Espinosa
United Nations Climate Change Executive Secretary

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