Data Economy, AI, Privacy and Sustainability in Times of Climate Emergency

On January 24th, within the framework of the CPDP in Brussels, Hangar is organizing the panel “Data Economy, AI, Privacy and Sustainability in Times of Climate Emergency“.

In 2008, the Internet was already responsible for the 2% of CO2 global emissions, exceeding those of the entire aviation industry. The amount of users and network connections has increased at a whopping pace ever since. As an indication of this: global energy demand related to internet-connected devices is increasing 20% a year. In 2015 ICT already accounted for 3-5% of the world’s electricity use and it is expected that, by 20dataeconomy 25, ICT will consume 20% of the world’s electricity, which would potentially hamper global attempts to meet climate change targets. Given the growing significance of this impact on the global economy, there is an urgent need to raise awareness and ensure more sustainable and responsible development whilst harnessing the huge potential for adding value in society. This panel will discuss how society can efficiently tackle the critical environmental toll of our current data ecosystem and imagine future sustainable technologies and modes of operating within these technologies. The panel will consider, among other issues:

1. The hidden environmental impact of the current data economy

2. Materiality of AI and future environmental costs of automatizing actions

3. Environmental impact of devices:ethical and environmental concerns on mineral sourcing

4. Policy for sustainable privacy, dataeconomy and AI

The panel, moderated by Tere Badia, will be composed by Joana Moll (Hangar, ES) Fieke Jansen (Cardiff University, NL/UK), Alexandra Lutz (Greens, European Parliament, BE) and Yaser Hammadi (Minespider, DE).