Page 88 - Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

Similar observations were made during a 2017 study that mapped the national ICT infrastructure
development journey of Azerbaijan. The study concluded: ‘ICT development in Azerbaijan unfolded
as a ‘stage-skipping” variant of Technology Leapfrogging that consists of four stages: (1) Psyching,
(2) Planting, (3) Propelling, and (4) Perpetuating. Analogous to the mechanics of a physical leapfrog,
traversing the four stages enabled Azerbaijan to achieve an advanced state of ICT connectivity quickly
and cost effectively in spite of its limited resources, which served to generate a variety of economic
and social benefits for the country.’ Such variants of direct leapfrogging should be studied in more
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detail, a task which is particularly suitable for an organization such as the UN, which – through its many
coordinated global activities – is encouraging and facilitating the strategic development, optimization,
standardization and cohesiveness of the overall approach to frontier technology deployment.

The focus of this report on equitable deployment of innovative frontier technologies has been echoed
by the UNFCCC especially in the context of climate change, where it has concluded: ‘Climate change
is the defining issue of our time, and while the world needs to move fast, the solutions must be fair.
The world’s most vulnerable people are suffering the worst effects of climate change, such as more
intense storms, dangerous heat waves, more frequent and longer-lasting droughts, rising seas (and
major technological disasters that have been triggered by these natural hazards), while contributing
least to the problem’.

The interconnected Sustainable Development Goals, which include the standalone SDG 13 on Climate
Action, provide the best framework for tackling the climate emergency in ways that help everyone, in
particular, women, children, youth, older persons, persons with disabilities and those living in Small
Island Developing States. This is even more important in light of the four demographic ‘mega-trends’
that are shaping the world in fundamental ways: population growth, population ageing, international
migration and urbanization. These trends were highlighted recently during the annual Commission
on Population and Development (which was held at the UN Headquarters in New York on 1 April
2019) as part of the discussion around the need to bring about a better and more sustainable future
for all through achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The gender divide as
explained by UN Women, in particular, is explored briefly in Box 22.

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