Page 83 - Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

h. Digitalization and Big Data for leapfrogging traditional pathways to help increase
agricultural efficiency and food security

Digitalization (and the resulting Big Data) already form the basis for policymakers to build strategies for
halting climate change. Digitalization of climate data, for example, preserves historical observations
and provides the basis for understanding and assessing climate variability, predicting extreme climate
events and designing adaptation and mitigation strategies. On the industry side, digitalization through
platforms such as mobile and cloud computing not only enables financial growth and stability but can
also help ensure sustainability in the social and environmental obligations of businesses.
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Small businesses and primary industries in the developing world can benefit significantly from
the trend toward digitalization, as it can lead to new ways of doing business. Big Data analytics
can enhance operational efficiencies at factory floors, while improving supply chain efficiencies.
Small-scale, cost-effective digitalization projects can help inform local climate adaptation policies
and result in significant positive impacts on livelihoods within local communities. Mobile apps can
disseminate information regarding the weather and global warming trends or be used to track an
individual or company’s carbon footprint. Figure 31 illustrates some key Big Data characteristics
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and considerations.
It is estimated that by this year, 2020, 40 zettabytes, i.e. 40 thousand billion billions of data will be
generated around the world. Data pertaining to the Earth can be a valuable source of knowledge that
can help inform the planet’s collective future. Consolidating information from observations of the
Earth with geographic, oceanographic and scientific data, and making data available to multiple players
across industries, academia and governments will allow for newer services and create innovative new
uses for Big Data. 244

From agriculture to transport, all sectors can benefit from an increase in and accessibility to
digitalization. By 2050, the world's population is expected to approach close to 10 billion people,
as a median estimate. Food security is already a major issue in many parts of the world and will
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become more so against a backdrop of increasingly scarce resources.
To increase agricultural production to adequate levels, digitalization of the agricultural sector is
needed to ensure optimization of inputs such as water, while minimizing undesirable outputs such
as CO emissions. The information capital derived from Big Data on weather, soil moisture, mineral
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