Climate change and environmental degradation are an existential threat to the entire world. The answer to these challenges is the European Green Deal. In addition to reducing emissions and waste, preserving the environment and growing a climate-neutral economy, it also foresees a simultaneous digital transition, which should be inseparable from the green one (twin transition). Implementation of the Green Deal is an important component of Ukraine’s European integration. The European Commission determined that the recovery of Ukraine should meet the green and digital agenda. In order to understand how this is possible in Ukraine, especially during the post-war reconstruction, and what steps need to be taken, BRDO analysts developed the Green paper “Digital transformation as the Basis of the European Green Deal and recovery”.
According to the Environmental Efficiency Index 2022, Ukraine ranks 52 out of 180 countries. The following categories have the worst indicators: ecosystem services (103), air quality (88), waste management (88), and biodiversity (76). In addition, the damage to the environment from the Russia’s war against Ukraine is unprecedented. These are fires, chemical pollution due to shelling of industry and infrastructure, soil and sea pollution with oil products, loss of biodiversity, threat to endangered species. In the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, the potential of digital transformation can become a key factor in achieving the goals of the Green Deal.
“The National Economic Strategy of Ukraine until 2030 provides for synchronisation with the Green Deal. Digital solutions make it possible and easier in various sectors to support decarbonisation, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15-20%, ensure economic growth, use smart infrastructure to monitor ecosystems, optimise traffic flows and energy use, and create many other opportunities. This requires attracting investment and accelerating the development of digital infrastructure and technologies, digital services and markets, as well as the development of digital skills of the population. What measures and actions are necessary for this – we have described in detail in the new Green paper”, said Oleksii Dorogan, CEO of BRDO.
“Digital transformation is part of the Green Deal. Its implementation is important for European integration, attracting funds for recovery, and developing the economy. Changes are needed in many areas, from skills development to tax changes. Our study shows what exactly needs to be done in the digital sphere and how to digitise other sectors to implement the Green Course,” emphasised Ihor Samohodskyi, Head of the BRDO ICT sector.
The Green paper developed by BRDO contains an analysis of the goals of the Green Deal in the context of digital transformation, EU policy and its tools in achieving the goals of the green transition in the ICT sector, as well as a list of necessary measures for the green transformation of the ICT sector and digitalisation of other sectors of the Ukrainian economy during post-war recovery.