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Peer-reviewed publication

Digital transformation and environmental sustainability in industry: Putting expectations in Asian and African policies into perspective

By Stefanie Kunkel and Marcel Matthess

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.

Effect categories of environmental effects of ICTs in industry, adapted from Beier et al. (2018), Berkhout and Hertin (2001) and Erdmann et al. (2004).

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.CountryName of the documentType of documentYear of publicationAuthor
1China“Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Actively Propelling the Internet Plus”Digital policy2015State Council of the People’s Republic of China
2China“Made in China 2025”Industrial policy2015State Council of the People’s Republic of China
3Philippines“The Philippine Digital Strategy Transformation 2.0: Digitally empowered Nation”Digital policy2014Commission on Information and Communications Technology
4Thailand“Executive Summary Thailand Information and Communication Technology Policy Framework (2011−2020) ICT2020”Digital policy2010National Electronics and Computer Technology Center
5Thailand“The twelfth national economic and social development plan (2017−2021)”Industrial policy2016Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board
6South Africa“Industrial Policy Action Plan 2018/19–2020/21”Industrial policy2018Department of Trade and Industry
7South Africa“National Integrated ICT Policy White Paper”Digital policy2016Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services
8South Africa“National e-Strategy. Digital Society South Africa”Digital policy2017Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services
9Kenya“National ICT Masterplan 2014−2017”Digital policy2014Ministry of Information Communications and Technology
10Kenya“National Information & Communications Technology Policy”Digital policy2016Ministry of Information Communications and Technology
11Kenya“Industrial Transformation Programme”Industrial policy2015Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development
12Nigeria“National ICT Policy”Digital policy2012Ministry of Communication Technology
13Rwanda“Smart Rwanda Masterplan 2015−2020”Digital policy2015Ministry of Youth and ICT
Selected policy documents

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.

Policy expectations regarding direct environmental effects of ICTs.
Policy expectations regarding indirect environmental effects of ICTs.

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 .