Page 92 - Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

Figure 33 further summarizes UN’s Environment’s proposed digital environment ecosystem for data,
algorithms and insights. 262

Figure 33: UN’s Environment’s proposed digital environment ecosystem [xxxiii]

As the above shows, frontier technologies offer significant potential to provide innovative ways
to address and combat the drivers and impacts of climate change. Although still considered to
be emerging, these technologies comprise innovative solutions to meet the needs of the world’s
population while addressing those of the planet. Cities and urban regions form the perfect backdrops
to test bed frontier technologies to mitigate climate change. Continuing innovation, therefore, must
be cultivated, nurtured and incentivized by local and national governments alike, in partnership with
industry and academia.

Furthermore, many emerging technologies are inter-related, especially the Internet of Things
(IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), 5G and Big Data. While the concepts of many of today’s emerging
technologies have been around for some time, it is now becoming feasible to implement IoT and
scalable information systems on larger scales. Therefore, ensuring the affordable and wide-scale
deployment of these ‘enabler’ and other connective technologies will assure further advancement
and the adoption of other frontier technologies.

Even in instances where existing frontier technologies may not yet offer solutions to the complex
challenges that faced at present or those that are expected to be faced in the future, the rapid
advancement of overall technology trajectories will likely result in new or more effective frontier
technology solutions in the future. Consequently, the assessment of emerging technology trends and
scalable deployment of existing frontier solutions should play a part in any city’s resilience strategy
over the foreseeable term.

It must be noted, however, that these technologies can be a contributor to, and part of, the solution
for climate change. They do have an environmental impact at each stage of their life cycle due to the
energy consumed during their production, distribution and use, and the associated GHG emissions.
However, if their double-edged nature is recognized and accounted for by policy makers, a balance
can be achieved wherein their potential in helping to monitor, adapt to and mitigate climate change
can be unlocked and optimally leveraged to ensure tangible, measurable progress.

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