EC Affirms Signing of Declaration on Green and Digital Transformation
EC announced that 24 member states, along with Norway and Iceland, have signed a declaration, at the online Digital Day 2021, to accelerate the use of green digital technologies for the benefit of environment. The signatories will deploy and invest more green digital technologies to achieve climate-neutrality and accelerate the green and digital transitions in priority sectors in Europe. The key areas of action include the promotion of green cloud, artificial Intelligence and blockchain technologies, sustainable hardware, green public procurement, and support for green tech startups and small and medium size enterprises (SMEs).
The signatories of the declaration on a green and digital transformation of the EU will take action, at the national level, in the following key areas:
- Make data available in common European data spaces
- Lead on energy-efficient artificial intelligence solutions
- Support smart and sustainable mobility systems
- Promote eco-designed products and accessible digital public services
- Contribute to the use of a climate-neutral, sustainable and energy-efficient European cloud and blockchain infrastructure
- Propose permits for deployment of networks and data centers that comply with the highest environmental sustainability standards
- Make green public procurement the default option
- Use EU funding programs and private equity to support European green tech startups and SMEs
The signatories will regularly assess their progress made and feed it into the ongoing monitoring activities of EC. They will also contribute to a shared repository of best practices and experiences to implement the declaration. In addition, 26 CEOs from the information and communications technology (ICT) sector joined the "European Green Digital Coalition," committing, on behalf of their companies, to significantly reduce their carbon footprint by 2030 and to become climate-neutral by 2040. The companies that have joined the European Green Digital Coalition include Accenture, IBM, Microsoft, and SAP SE. Solutions include investing in the development of more energy- and material-efficient digital technologies and working with expert organizations to measure and monitor the net environmental impact of green digital solutions. This also includes a commitment to co-create deployment guidelines of green digital solutions, along with other industry leaders, to accelerate the transition to sustainability of sectors.
Related Links
- Press Release on Digital Day 2021
- News on Green and Digital Transformation
- News on European Green Digital Coalition
Keywords: Europe, EU, Banking, Securities, Sustainable Finance, Climate Change Risk, ESG, Green Technology, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, EC
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