How can new digital technology aid global environmental cooperation?

The central question in the project is how new digital technology, such as AI, virtual reality and digital twins, can best be used to further global environmental cooperation.

The researchers are studying the benefits of new digital technologies in scientific environmental governance, and evaluating how those technologies can facilitate transformative learning, among other things by promoting new ways of understanding and relating to nature.

New digital technology and large quantities of environmental data can play a central role in international environmental cooperation. Machine learning and visualization technologies are now used to collect, process and analyze complex climate and biodiversity data. These technologies can further international cooperation by making it clear how effectively countries are succeeding in cutting their greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to climate change and protecting biodiversity.

Being able to compare the effects of countries’ environmental action makes it possible to demand political responsibility, thereby doing much to increase trust in environmental diplomacy. Yet digital technologies have also been criticized for favoring simplistic ways of identifying, understanding and dealing with current global environmental problems. In the social sciences, critics warn that digital analyses of complex environmental phenomena risk missing the social heart in environmental governance. Political action is then directed at technocratic solutions rather than the societal transformations that is needed to meet global environmental challenges. Many think that to counter this risk it is essential to incorporate local and traditional knowledge in current environmental monitoring and governance.

The researchers in this project are examining how digital technology can promote the innovative approach needed for effective international environmental cooperation. The first step is to analyze how new digital technologies and methods can support the knowledge required under the UN negotiations on climate and biodiversity. The next stage is to ascertain how digital tools are used in international research programs to support the temperature targets set in the Paris Accords and the global biodiversity targets. Lastly, the researchers will examine the potential for various digital technologies to incorporate other ways of seeing and understanding nature, thereby promoting more effective international environmental cooperation.

The researchers are using workshops with various stakeholders and groups and are collaborating with the WISDOME project to experiment with innovative digital formats such as virtual games and visual tools in order to ascertain the extent to which they can promote transformative learning.