Digital technologies can support achieving the SDGs and at the same time mitigate the current negative trends. 5G is one of the seven digital technologies identified as having a critical influence on the world, including: Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Cognitive technology, Cloud, Digital Access, and Blockchain. In the case of 5G, our report goes into extensive detail on its role in greening the world. The 5G share in traffic and data transmission has the potential to increase efficiency and will only continue to grow faster—this means better connectivity, higher speeds, and reduced latency that can enable things like digital twins, IoT devices and other applications to amplify efforts for a greener digital transition. While this indeed will mean the multiplication of IoT devices, there are very strong incentives for governments like the European Union and for manufacturers as well to keep these products energy-efficient. 5G needs to be accompanied by other digital technologies for its capacity to be fully realized and adequately deployed. AT&T, for instance, utilizes 5G and IoT in curbing GHG emissions using its Smart Irrigation solution, in collaboration with HydroPoint. The technology allows customers to track and manage their water usage with greater speed and precision, which uses cloud-based water management systems. The GHG emissions savings arise from the reductions in process and pumping of the water.
Looking at the potential in smart cities, Verizon offers an advanced traffic management service for public agencies using 5G and IoT devices, leveraging in-ground wireless vehicle detection sensors and cloud-based data collection systems. These sensors provide real-time road traffic data and follow-up studies conducted have shown 40% fewer traffic delays, 25% less travel time, 10% fuel savings, and 22% fewer emissions. ICT sector has a great responsibility to ensure that what it is deploying is sustainable. Recognizing the energy consumption of data centers and cloud computing, the Commission and our sector have been making great efforts in exploring the ways in which we can make data centers greener. The European Union needs to come out of its “a la carte” approach and take bold steps aligned with its core values and interests with the main purpose in mind of ensuring its positioning as a credible, solid and fundamental player in the global arena in order to offer the European economy and its citizens with top of the edge digital services. Technology can accelerate action, but it requires a robust, shared ambition. Critical to a shared ambition is strong leadership to secure it. For this to happen strategic vision and ambition is required.