YOUthDIG 02 2021

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25 June 2021 | 15:30-17:00 CEST
YOUthDIG 2021 programme

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Working title: Internet & Environment

Session teaser

We will discuss the intersection of the Internet and sustainability along with human rights concerns. Then, we will discuss policy implications and a perspective from the European parliament. Through this session, the participants will have enough information to be active participants in the FS1 session of EuroDIG and beyond.

Format

1. Michael Oghia (SDIA), Carbon and the cloud - An overview of ICT sustainability (30mins presentation + 15 mins Q&A)
Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have a direct impact on the physical environment, locally, regionally, and internationally. While these technologies play an increasingly central role in global efforts to find solutions to tackle the climate crisis and promote both environmental protection as well as sustainable development, the growing demands of an Internet-dependent and interconnected society are contributing to unprecedented levels of energy consumption, conflict mineral mining, e-waste generation and subsequent dumping in the Global South, negative effects on vulnerable natural landscapes, communities, and human rights, and much more. This session will highlight how digital technologies are inextricably linked to both the climate crisis and human consumption habits. It will explore how the Internet and ICTs relate to sustainability and environment, and help participants make a clear connection between the ever-growing amount of data generated, digital technologies used, and impact it has on the environment.
2. Alexandra Lutz (European Parliament) (30mins presentation + 15 mins Q&A)
The process of digitalisation alongside the growing ecological crisis and depleting resources rise new challenges in policy-making. Modern politics structured their institutions around categories as independent entities instead of adopting a holistic approach. In an increasingly interconnected world, EU institutions are likewise challenged in their traditional processes. Digital sustainability being at the interstice of different preoccupations exemplifies current shortcomings. Despite the political affirmation that the ecological and digital transitions need to go hand in hand in the EU since the early work program of the Von der Leyen Commission, recent regulatory proposals demonstrate the difficulty to impose sustainability as a digital priority. This session aims to give an overview of the state of the play of digital sustainability in European politics, current regulation efforts and open a discussion on possible ways forward.


People

Focal Points

  • Kris Shrishak, YouthDIG Org Team
  • Alessia Sposini,YouthDIG Org Team

Key participants

  • Michael Oghia, Director of Communications & External Relations at the Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance (SDIA)
Michael J. Oghia is the Director of Communications & External Relations at the Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance (SDIA). He is a Belgrade-based consultant, editor, researcher, speaker, and ICT sustainability advocate working within the digital policy & infrastructure, Internet governance, and media development ecosystems. Michael is a third-culture kid (TCK) and a connector at heart with more than a decade of professional experience in conflict resolution, journalism & media, policy, and development across five countries: The United States, Lebanon, India, Turkey, and Serbia. He also loathes referring to himself in third person.
  • Alexandra Lutz, European Parliament
Alexandra Lutz is a policy advisor on sustainable consumption and digital for a French green MEP in the European Parliament. Combining her political science and international law degrees with activist wit, she advocates for sustainability and human rights to be the guiding principles in policy-making. Her past involvements in NGOs led her to advocacy campaigns on reforming the French constitution, to lobby international dialogues like the UNFCCC process and the UNEP work on A Global Pact for the Environment, and to coal-mining blockades in Germany. She has not yet given up her dream that reforming political institutions into musical theatres would enhance the outcome of law-making processes.