Speech prepared for delivery via video recording at ‘A Digital Planet for Sustainability’, hosted by the Coalition for Digital Environmental Sustainability.
I am delighted to welcome you to this virtual event on digital cooperation for environmental sustainability.
Some of you may have heard me speak about the triple planetary crisis – the climate crisis, the biodiversity and nature crisis, and the pollution and waste crisis. As the UN Secretary-General recently noted, “This triple crisis is our number one existential threat.” If we don’t rapidly address this crisis as an integrated whole, we will not be able to reduce poverty or achieve the sustainable development goals.
In this “genuine moment of truth”, digital technologies can either make the planet a far better place for people, or they can contribute to the further degradation of the environment. The Coalition for Digital Environmental Sustainability (CODES), which supports the UN Secretary-General’s Digital Cooperation Roadmap, is an important step that moves us in the right direction – towards embracing digital technologies that work for people, that work for inclusion, that work for poverty reduction, and that work for the planet.
My thanks to our partners UNDP, the International Science Council, Future Earth and Sustainability in the Digital Age, the German Environment Agency, and the Kenyan Environment Ministry under the Office of the UN Technology Envoy. I remain impressed by your resolve to get us to a green and shared future. And I stress shared because this is everyone’s future. Our journey must leave no one behind. Because it is unacceptable that half of the world’s population, most of them women, remain without internet. And because it is unacceptable that at least a third of the world’s schoolchildren are unable to access remote learning during school closures.
So, I come to you with four immediate areas of focus.
First, measure better. We must be able to see a true picture of the sustainability of our supply chains. As companies develop net-zero plans, we need accurate, real-time datasets that allow us to plan accordingly. We must use digital technologies such as earth observation and AI to automatically generate actionable environmental intelligence about key risks to our economies and supply chains. Presently, less than 60 per cent of environmental indicators of the SDGs can be measured globally – we must plug this gaping hole.
Second, inform better. We must use digital technologies to influence consumer choices on sustainability. More than two billion consumers are now on e-commerce platforms. So let us use this to make sustainability the preferred choice. Yes, government guardrails and policies are important, but at the end of the day, as UNEP’s Emissions Gap report pointed out, two-thirds of emissions are linked to private households. To the consumption that you and I drive.
Third, we must do business better, i.e. more sustainably. Digital technologies can help align capital with sustainability. There is no profit to be earned on a destroyed planet. The financial sector has to step up unconditionally, and with real commitment, in the transition to low-carbon portfolios. As digital transformation spreads to all corners of global financial markets, it will become easier, cheaper, and more seamless to integrate environmental and climate considerations into costing models, risk assessments and due diligence requirements. The transparency that can be inbuilt in digital tools can fight against greenwashing – benefiting people, companies, and the planet in the long-run.
Finally, procure better, which means sustainable procurement. Policies that encourage sustainable procurement policies can have a major influence on market dynamics. The digital world can enable business models that change how we transact with goods and services, building resilience, livelihoods, and sustainability. Private procurement on e-commerce platforms alone represents 25 per cent of global GDP. Sustainability is a purchasing criteria and digital technologies can enable us to procure with purpose, with sustainability in mind.
Digitalization is fundamentally changing the economy and our society. We need to develop a shared vision and rules of the new social market economy in a way that ensures environmental sustainability and digitalization are mutually reinforcing, where the change benefits as many as possible. In bringing together a unique constellation of actors and a new era of cooperation, CODES has the potential to play a big role in this vision.
I thank you for your support and look forward to hearing about the outcomes of your work on the digital planet.
Thank you.
Executive Director
