We worked with New Zealand telecommunications company Spark on a report about the role digital technologies can play in reducing carbon emissions. Meeting the climate challenge through digital technology shows that technology could reduce annual emissions by 7.2 million tonnes by 2030 – equal to 42% of the emissions that New Zealand needs to reduce over this period.
Tom Newitt, Sustainability Lead at Spark, joined Emily Townsend, our Head of Life Cycle Strategies for this webinar. They discussed the report’s findings, the research methods and what it means for the future.
The report focuses on the sectors that emit the most carbon in New Zealand: transport, energy and industry, and agriculture. While this webinar focuses on New Zealand, many findings apply to Australia and the rest of the world.
Here's a preview of the webinar
Main webinar takeaways
This report focuses on New Zealand
Technologies have the potential to reduce emissions around the world. This report however focused on New Zealand and considered factors unique to the country. For example, the NZ electricity grid has a large percentage of renewable sources. Agriculture also contributes a large amount to the country’s emissions.
Digital technology can give new options
New Zealand’s Emission Reductions Plan considered existing technologies and known solutions. New and emerging technologies though can lower emissions. One example is soil sensors that let farmers track nutrients, allowing potentially lower fertiliser use.
At the report’s launch, New Zealand’s Climate Change Minister James Shaw noted ‘the high-tech sector was not a huge feature of the Emissions Reduction Plan. I think that was an oversight.’
Digital technology is more than just connectivity
Digital technology provides many opportunities to reduce emissions. These include monitoring physical assets and their environments, creating insights from data, optimising systems and processes, informing decision-making, and influencing behaviour.
The biggest opportunities
The most significant opportunities to reduce emissions through digital technology lie in New Zealand's three largest emitting sectors:
- transport (2.9 Mt reduction modelled)
- energy and industry (2.4 Mt)
- agriculture (1.9 Mt)