With the increasing use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in industrial production, the risks and opportunities of these technologies for environmental sustainability as well as political awareness about these risks and opportunities become increasingly important. In this paper we analysed digital and industrial policies of four Sub-Saharan African countries (South Africa, Rwanda, Kenya, Nigeria) and three East Asian and Pacific countries (China, Thailand, Philippines) regarding their expectations about the impacts of ICTs in industry for environmental sustainability. We built on existing frameworks for the assessment of ICTs that distinguish between direct environmental effects which occur during the lifecycle of ICTs and indirect environmental effects which result from the application of ICTs in a variety of production processes and economic activities.
We used qualitative content analysis to explore and analyse policy expectations regarding both direct and indirect environmental impacts of ICTs in industry. Table 1 displays the selected documents.
No. | Country | Name of the document | Type of document | Year of publication | Author |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | China | “Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Actively Propelling the Internet Plus” | Digital policy | 2015 | State Council of the People’s Republic of China |
2 | China | “Made in China 2025” | Industrial policy | 2015 | State Council of the People’s Republic of China |
3 | Philippines | “The Philippine Digital Strategy Transformation 2.0: Digitally empowered Nation” | Digital policy | 2014 | Commission on Information and Communications Technology |
4 | Thailand | “Executive Summary Thailand Information and Communication Technology Policy Framework (2011−2020) ICT2020” | Digital policy | 2010 | National Electronics and Computer Technology Center |
5 | Thailand | “The twelfth national economic and social development plan (2017−2021)” | Industrial policy | 2016 | Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board |
6 | South Africa | “Industrial Policy Action Plan 2018/19–2020/21” | Industrial policy | 2018 | Department of Trade and Industry |
7 | South Africa | “National Integrated ICT Policy White Paper” | Digital policy | 2016 | Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services |
8 | South Africa | “National e-Strategy. Digital Society South Africa” | Digital policy | 2017 | Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services |
9 | Kenya | “National ICT Masterplan 2014−2017” | Digital policy | 2014 | Ministry of Information Communications and Technology |
10 | Kenya | “National Information & Communications Technology Policy” | Digital policy | 2016 | Ministry of Information Communications and Technology |
11 | Kenya | “Industrial Transformation Programme” | Industrial policy | 2015 | Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development |
12 | Nigeria | “National ICT Policy” | Digital policy | 2012 | Ministry of Communication Technology |
13 | Rwanda | “Smart Rwanda Masterplan 2015−2020” | Digital policy | 2015 | Ministry of Youth and ICT |
Our analysis showed that policies express a broad range of vague expectations focusing more on positive indirect impacts of the use of ICTs, e.g. for enhanced energy efficiency and resource management, than on negative direct impacts of ICTs, e.g. electricity consumption of ICTs. Moreover, expectations differed between countries and there was no shared theme that emerged in all policies. The results are summarized in Table 2 and Table 3.
We suggest that policies must go beyond awareness of selected opportunities towards the integration of a more systemic understanding of interlinked direct and indirect impacts and pursue targeted measures to employ ICTs as tools for environmentally sustainable industries.
Read more:
Kunkel, S., & Matthess, M. (2020). Digital transformation and environmental sustainability in industry: Putting expectations in Asian and African policies into perspective. Environmental science & policy, 112, 318-329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2020.06.022 .