How to help protect the earth in digital technology and innovation ｜ Green Club International News

Editor's note: At present, the digital economy is entering a new era of comprehensive development. The Internet, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain and other technologies have accelerated innovation. These emerging technologies are increasing into the entire process of social development, of course, including environmental governance, and become a major weapon to promote sustainable development. As the UNEP certification agency (UNEP) certification agency, China ’s biodiversity protection and Green Development Foundation (referred to as the China Green Fair and Green Association) actively participate in global environmental governance, and has long been committed to biodiversity protection and green development for a long time. Recently, the Green Club Technology Ethics Working Group learned through UNEP that the organization used digital technology to promote the results of environmental governance. The relevant content is organized as follows, for friends who are interested in reference and understand.

(Picture source: ROYAL SOCICITY)

For many countries in the world, from the United States and Britain to China and Japan, July this year is one of the hottest months since the 19th century. Global heat waves triggered a fatal wildfire and led thousands of residents to leave their hometown.

With the fading of wildfires, many countries, especially European countries, are trying to solve the problem of air pollution caused by extreme temperatures.

The harmfulness of the burnt habitat and the lingering smoke constitutes a huge danger to humans and environmental health. Studies have shown that wildfire smoke and related air pollution estimates that more than 33,000 people die each year and affect the health of hundreds of thousands of people.

In order to help solve the problem of air pollution, the UN Environmental Planning Department is working with all parties to find technology and innovative solutions to promote structural transformation, strengthen environmental sustainability, adopt climate action and pollution prevention.

Experts say that in the next few years, the digital ecosystem of the data platform will be the key to helping the world understand and crack down on a series of environmental hazards, whether it is from air pollution or methane emissions.

David Jensen, coordinator of the digital transformation working group of the Environment Agency, said: "Various private and public sectors participants are using data and digital technologies to accelerate the global environmental action and fundamentally break the routine." He then added: "These partnerships are worthy of the attention of the international community because they can promote systemic changes at unprecedented speeds and scale."

A new era

环境署正在通过其数字转型方案（Digital Transformation programme）和作为秘书长数字合作路线图（Secretary-General's Digital Cooperation Roadmap）一部分的数字环境可持续发展联盟（the Coalition for Digital Environmental Sustainability）的共同支持，为This task contributes.

Research by the Environment Office shows that in the 68%indicators of the environment -related sustainable development goals, there are not enough data to evaluate the current progress. The digital initiative can use technology to prevent the decline of the earth and accelerate the promotion of sustainable finance, products, services and lifestyles.

The Global Air Environment Monitoring System (GEMS AIR) is one of the first digital tools used to track the global, national and local environmental conditions in real time.

The GEMS air system is operated by the Environment Agency and Swiss Technology Company IQAIR. It is the largest air pollution network in the world and covers about 5,000 cities. In 2020, more than 50 million users visited the platform, and its data was spread to multimedia billboards to remind people to pay attention to air quality risks in real time. In the future, the project aims to expand this capacity directly into mobile phone health applications.

(Image source: UNEP picture description: The GEMS air website of the Environment Office will track the air quality of 5,000 cities including New Delhi)

Based on the lessons obtained from GEMS Air, the Environment Department has developed three other digital platforms with a digital leader to show data and digital technology, including cloud computing, earth observation and artificial intelligence.

Manage fresh water

One of them is a freshwater ecosystem detector, which provides the detailed situation of lakes and rivers of each country on the planet.

As the result of the cooperation between the United Nations Environmental Planning Department, the European Union Commission Joint Research Center and Google Earth Engine, it provides free and public data on permanent and seasonal surface water, reservoir, wetlands and mangroves.

"It is presented in a policy -friendly way to enable citizens and governments to easily evaluate the actual situation of the world freshwater resources. Development goals 6.6 progress. "

Data can be visualized using geographical space maps, and information charts can be downloaded in the country, below and river basin. These data are updated each year, including describing long -term trends and annual records of freshwater coverage.

Copy climate change

The Environment Department is also using these data to drive decisions, such as promoting the in -depth reduction of methane emissions through the IMEO Observation Station (IMEO). Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, which is at least one -quarter of today's global warming. The observation station aims to find the source of methane emissions by collecting data from various sources, including satellites, ground sensors, corporate reports and scientific research.

The Global methane assessment report released by the Environment and Climate and Clean Air Alliance (CCAC) found that if the methane caused by humans will be reduced by 45%in this decade, it will avoid global warming of nearly 0.3 ° C by the 2040s. This helps prevent premature death of 255,000 examples worldwide, reduces 775,000 hospitals related to asthma, and loses 26 million tons of crops.

Manfred Caltagrone, an expert on methane emissions experts, said: "International methane discharge observation station supports the expansion of partners and institutions dedicated to methane emission reduction to achieve the worst impact of climate change to avoid climate change impact. The level required. "

Through oil and natural gas methane partnership 2.0 (The Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0), methane observation stations cooperate with oil companies to improve the accuracy and transparency of methane emissions reports. The assets reported by the current member companies cover more than 30%of oil and natural gas production worldwide. It also cooperates with the scientific community to fund research on providing reliable and open data.

Protect nature

The Environment Agency also supports the United Nations Biological Diversity Laboratory 2.0 (The United National Biodersity Lab 2.0), which is a free open platform that provides data and more than 400 maps, emphasizing the scope of nature reserve, the impact of climate change, and human development of human beings. The scale. This spatial data helps decision makers put naturally in the core position of sustainable development, enabling them to intuitively see the greenhouse gas such as blocking natural disasters, storage of carbon dioxide, and natural systems that provide billions of people with food and water Essence

(Image source: UNEP Picture Description: UN Biological Diversity Laboratory 2.0 has more than 400 maps, showing the distribution of natural scope and human living areas.)

More than 61 countries have visited data from the United Nations Biological Diversity Laboratory as a part of the state report submitted by the Convention on Biology Diversity to the Convention on the Convention on Biology. International protocol. The 2.0 version of the laboratory was launched in October 2021. It is a cooperation project between the Development Agency, the World Protection Monitoring Center of the Environment, the Secretariat of the Biological Diversity and Impact Observatory.

All digital platforms of the Environment Department are being united to the World Environmental Status Room (UNEP's World Environment Situation Room), which is a digital ecosystem composed of data and analysis that allows users to monitor the main environment of global, regional and national environment. Sustainable development goals and progress of multilateral protocols.

David Jinson, a coordinator of the Digital Transformation Working Group of the Environment Agency, said: "The technical ability to measure the changes in global environment is almost real -time, which is very important for effective decisions. The impact of changing 'game rules', where it can promote users to make personal changes, which is a major way to protect the natural world and realize net zero. "

For the original text:

https://www.unep.org/news-ndories/how-digital-dignology-nnovation-can-help-planet

Compilation: HINA

Review: lucy

Edit: Pierre

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