Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the implications of digital transformation for environmental sustainability and social justice. It proposes principles such as regenerative design, circularity, sufficiency, system resilience, digital sovereignty, and social equity to guide digital transformation.

Paper long abstract:

While digital transformation is discussed in development-related policy circles, governments globally grapple with multiple key transition processes, including digitalisation and transitions to greater sustainability, including the mitigation of climate change and biodiversity loss. In a recent report, a set of experts from different disciplines, the Digital for Sustainability (D4S) group, have published a report calling on governments globally to recognize the implications of the digitalisation for environmental sustainability and social justice:

https://digitalization-for-sustainability.com/digital-reset/

It argues that a “digital reset” is needed, fundamentally refocusing the purpose of digital technologies towards a deep sustainability transition. The report identifies key principles: technologies should be built according to regenerative designs and pursue systems innovations that advance circularity and sufficiency, improve economic resilience, and foster digital sovereignty and social equity. Drawing on sectors including agriculture, mobility, industrial production, energy, building and consumption, the report documents the negative and positive effects digitalisation has for sustainability, concluding that there is a risk of a net negative effect. The report calls for more effective governance of data infrastructure, better and more energy-conscious design of devices and infrastructures, and scrutiny of the environmentally unsustainable business models of key technology companies.

This paper, by the D4S co-author with the global justice portfolio in the group, introduces the report from a global justice perspective, and focuses on its implications for low- and lower-middle income countries. In doing so, it documents the role of different UN agencies currently discussing digitalisation and sustainability, examines their policies and discourses, and offers recommendations.