By Ana F. Vergara, UNEP, and Angus Hamilton, formerly ETH Zurich

On 29 May 2024, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) launched the report titled, ‘Digital Public Infrastructure for Environmental Sustainability.’

The key findings of the report were presented during a session at the WSIS+20 Forum High-level Event, accompanied by a high-level discussion on the future of digital public infrastructure for environmental sustainability, which brought together some of the leading institutions working on digital public infrastructure (DPI).

The report bridges the fields of computer science and environmental governance to lay out a vision for how DPI – particularly in the form of data exchange systems – can improve the availability of information on environmental sustainability. In turn, the report argues that decision making can be improved with accessible, timely, credible, and insightful information.

The report was a collaborative effort led by Ana F. Vergara, UNEP, Yaxuan Chen, formerly UNEP, Angus Hamilton, formerly ETH Zurich, and Kurt Stockinger, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, with contributions of more than 40 international experts.

At the WSIS+20 event, two of the lead authors delivered the findings of the report and set the stage for a lively roundtable discussion on the future of DPI for environmental sustainability.

The report analyzes three cases related to the agri-food sector and identifies six technology innovations to tackle information challenges: 

• Open data discovery for fragmented environment and supply chain data;
• Privacy enhancing technologies to enable the flow of potentially sensitive environmental sustainability information;
• Data markets for rewarding green data sharing;
• Computational law and data integration of green and circular economy policy measures; 
• Using large language models to “speak” with policy and facilitate compliance; and
• Tools and techniques for human-centered artificial intelligence (AI) in environmental sustainability decision making. 

Together, the six categories of technology innovations can form DPI for the exchange of sustainability-related data, showing the way forward to a more interconnected and resilient digital ecosystem.

Following the presentation, Robert Opp, Chief Digital Officer, UN Development Programme (UNDP), delivered a compelling keynote. He illustrated how DPI could drive green transitions, as shown by UNDP’s innovative digital payment schemes for environmental services.

David Jensen, Regional Coordinator for Europe and North America, UNEP, moderated a dynamic panel discussion featuring leaders in DPI. The panel included: Golestan (Sally) Radwan, Chief Digital Officer, UNEP; Yolanda Martínez International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) GovStack Initiative; Menna El-Assady, ETH Zurich; and Noemi Burkl, Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Together, they delved into several key issues, including:

• Capitalizing on the relevance of DPI for environmental sustainability, with a growing emphasis on data transparency, interoperability, and governance to support environmental decision making;
• Promoting data-driven policy- and decision making by utilizing DPI for environmental monitoring, analysis, and reporting;
• Building tools that go beyond gathering and analyzing data to apply insights in real-world contexts to mitigate environmental issues effectively, among the next steps for developing applications that translate digital infrastructure capabilities into measurable environmental impacts on the ground;
• Enhancing governance frameworks for DPI implementation, focusing on data privacy, security, and ethical considerations;
• Bringing the private sector into DPI initiatives for addressing environmental challenges and fostering collaboration between governments and private entities.

This new report and the high-level panel discussion represent a pivotal advancement in integrating DPI with environmental sustainability goals. However, the dialogue must continue beyond a mere acknowledgment of its potential.

The UNEP report marks a starting point for the topic, which needs to be taken forward by further research into the environmental impacts of DPI.

The environmental governance and data science communities must take bold next steps to conduct national pilot tests and develop tangible applications based on the identified technological innovations.

For impact, a concerted effort is needed to understand how to leverage public and private finance towards digital solutions for environmental sustainability, encompassing local, regional, and global scopes.

Finally, studies focusing on consumer perspectives can supplement UNEP’s existing research to provide a deeper understanding of needs, opportunities, and challenges.

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Any views expressed are solely the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of UNEP.